Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Lying clickbait: Missed-by-a-mile edition

While some lying clickbait articles mislead with photos from roughly the same time period or general geography, others are liar liar pants on fire.
Here are some recent examples of fraudulent clickbait articles.
A Taboola-sponsored link titled “Declassified images they tried to hide from the world” used a dramatic image of a passenger plane crashing into a bridge. The image was never classified, never hidden and is a complete fake.
The dramatic image is apocalyptic digital artwork by Steve McGhee.


Another Taboola article titled “Unknown facts about the Native Americans that historians can’t explain” uses a photo purporting to show an Indian woman. The photo actually shows curvy Nicaraguan model Dolly Castro dressed as Pocahontas. (See articles on ATL Night Spots and Imgur.)






Yet another Taboola link titled “23 Woodstock photos that will make your skin crawl” featured a picture of a woman dancing in the rain. This one’s not even close.
The woman named Kate was photographed by Russian photographer Danil Sigidin in 2009.



Bonus: The sponsored article next to the supposed Woodstock photo features a picture of sexy Italian showgirl Nicole Minetti. This photo has been used for many a clickbait article. (See articles about her by the Telegraph, the Daily Mail and Reuters.)
Yet another Taboola article is titled “Images of the Titanic taken by passenger’s camera.” It uses a photo from the James Cameron movie “Titanic” (1997).



Speaking of movies, a sponsored link on Yahoo claimed actress Anne Baxter was a “Bond girl.” She was never in a James Bond movie. Worse yet, the sponsored post uses a photo of actress Debra Paget from “The Ten Commandments” (1956), which also starred Baxter. What a mess.



Finally, a Taboola article touts “Rare images of life during the Wild West that’ll make your skin crawl.” (Again with the skin crawling!) It uses a picture of a hot girl with a shotgun.
Spoiler alert: The photo isn’t old or even from the U.S. It’s a shot of actress Adriana Torrebejano from the Spanish TV series “Tierra de Lobos.”



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