Rumours are circulating that claim actor Ben Kingsley have recently come out as a dog fighting addict, which has resulted in many horrified social media users claiming they will no longer watch any movies in which he appears.
Whilst we can understand the anger from such users, once again it is completely misplaced, since the rumours are entirely untrue and trace back to a website called thestudioexec.com, a fake news website that writes entirely fictional news and attempts to call it satire, which it clearly isn’t. This is what we refer to as fauxtire.
It is not difficult to dismiss the hoax, given that the studio exec website is not mainstream media yet claims to have an exclusive with Kingsley. Also, no media outlets are reporting the news and the quotes supposedly given by Kingsley in the article appear nowhere else on the Internet at all – which would be highly unusual if the article was legitimate.
But perhaps to be convinced beyond doubt one only needs to browse the studioexec website to see that other stories covered on the site are equally false and equally as obvious. For example Steve Jobs isn’t appearing in the next Avengers movie and Tom Cruise didn’t try and commit suicide by jumping of the wing of an airplane as it flew over the English Channel.
And again if that isn’t enough the About Us page states –
Fauxtire websites write fake news to lure traffic to their website. Despite often pretending to be satire, the articles clearly lack any obvious attempt at humour, and in this case border on libellous.
Read our article here on how to spot fauxtire websites.