NOT REAL NEWS

A look at what didn’t happen this week

This is a round-up of some of the most popular, but completely untrue, headlines of the week. NONE OF these stories are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. AP checked these out. Here are the facts:

NOT REAL: NASA will pay you US$18,000 to stay in bed and smoke weed for 70 straight days.

THE FACTS: NASA has been willing to pay people willing to stay in bed, but there was no marijuana involved in the offer. The space agency’s website says bed rest studies give scientists information on how the body adapts to weightlessness. NASA spokesman William Jeffs tells the AP that the story is “absolutely untrue” and the agency hasn’t conducted bed rest studies for some time.

NOT REAL: Donald Trump signs executive order allowing the hunting of Bald Eagles.

THE FACTS: The story was shared by the St George Gazette and attributed to The Associated Press. But the AP never ran such a story because the president gave no such order. A list of executive orders issued by Trump mentions nothing about bald eagles. Congress first outlawed the killing of the national bird in 1918. The St George Gazette is an outlet of admitted hoax artist Paul Horner.

NOT REAL: George Soros indicted for voter machine fraud and more.

THE FACTS: A search of the federal court system shows no criminal cases pending against the Hungarian-American billionaire known to back liberal causes, despite a story posted by The People’s Resistance that claimed Soros was federally indicted. The post included a photo that appeared to show Soros in a courtroom. The picture is actually a doctored image of a hacker being sentenced in June for stealing from a Soros foundation.