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  • 2015-05-12 (xsd:date)
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  • Florida Man Turns Himself in for Murdering Imaginary Friend? (en)
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  • On 12 May 2015, the entertainment web site Moron.com published an article reporting that a man named Geoff Gaylord had turned himself in to police for killing his imaginary friend, Mr. Happy: The story (whiched played on the saga of the ubiquitous and hapless Florida Man) fooled thousands of readers as it spread across social media, and at least two web sites, the Inquisitr and Mandatory, republished it as if it were real news. But there was no truth to the story. Although Moron.com does not specifically state that it is an entertainment web site, it offers several clues indicating that the site is just another purveyor of fake news. First, the author of this article is listed as Moron. Second, the web site has previously published fake news stories, such as a yarn about a couple selling golden tickets to heaven, or this story about child love dolls. Lastly, the photograph included with the article did not show a man named Geoff Gaylord who murdered his imaginary friend, but rather a man named Billy Southern, who was included in WTSP-TV's gallery of crying mugshots in 2011. Although this story was still listed as a real news story on the Inquisitr as of 13 May 2015, Mandatory added a disclaimer to their version stating: (en)
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