It seems like every week, a flurry of articles comes out about something The Simpsons has predicted.
I’ve written about this several times, most recently in this blog.
Right now, fake news is going around about The Simpsons predicting the murder of George Floyd.
They didn’t.
The images that are being used to argue it don’t come from the show–someone has altered them.
One picture was created intentionally as a form of social protest.
I am terribly irritated at “news” sources, though, that repeat the debunked rumors.
Take this article, for example, from something called Lastly.com.
It looks vaguely like a news source, enough to fool some people. I couldn’t find an “about us,” etc.
After repeating the rumor, the article showed the pictures used to further it.
At the end, the author clarified his/her ignorance: “it was not immediately clear as to which episode from The Simpsons aired the White House lights off. Or if at all, the pics belong from [sic] the cartoon series.”
The passive voice is deceptive.
It actually is clear–to anyone who either knows the show or who does the most basic research of asking someone who knows the show.
If “news” sites like this did any kind of fact checking, this rumor would not have spread so far. Snopes actually had to address it.
(In case you don’t trust me, trust Snopes. The rumor’s false.)
