A couple of weeks ago, a woman reached out to me in regards to an article she read in YourNewsWire.com: Melania Trump Bans Monsanto Products From The White House. As it turns out, an article I wrote six years ago was plagiarized to create this fake news. I’m not sure how I feel about this. The words that come to mind are almost entirely onomatopoetic: ug, wretch, gag.
Back When it Was Real News
About six years ago, I did a fair amount of writing on the topic of GMO’s and Monsanto. I wrote a blog called A Month Without Monsanto wherein I documented my attempts to remove the company’s products from my life for 31 days. It was way harder than I thought it would be.
I learned a lot that month, and after it was over, I did some journalistic writing for Our World 2.0 (a United Nations publication) and Yes! Magazine. One of the pieces I wrote for Yes! had the same title as my blog.
Even though I haven’t written on the topic in years, I do still occasionally get emails from people with questions about GMOs. I even got to judge an essay contest on the topic. That was fun.
So I wasn’t that surprised to get the email asking about the article, but this time, the email I received was asking if I knew that my words had actually been put in the mouth of first lady Melania Trump. THAT was surprising.
Good Ol’ Snopes
Snopes was spot on with this one. They not only called out the YourNewsWire article as the total fake that it was, they also managed to dig in and find my article from six years ago and highlight it as the source.
I mean, come on YourNewsWire.com. If you’re going to just make shit up, at least go all the way and make it all up. Don’t add plagiarism to your list of fouls. Isn’t reporting fake news bad enough?
For The Record
Just to put the record straight, Mrs. Trump has made no such statement about GMOs in the White House. If she had, and she had plagiarized me in her statement I guess I wouldn’t be so upset. I mean, that would mean I have something in common with Michelle Obama, and I’ll welcome that any day. (Sigh – remember when our first lady was awesome?)
Also for the record – fuck YourNewsWire.com.
“News” sites like that are what’s wrong with our country today.
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