Was man who “exposed WaPo” Doug Lewis found dead in a lake? Fake News
Rumours are circulating online that a man named Doug Lewis who “exposed the Washington Post for paying women to accuse Roy Moore” has been found dead in a lake.
Such rumours link back to an article on ReganWasRight.com – the article claims that Doug Lewis, who gained social media notoriety after his tweet claimed the Washington Post (WaPo) offered a female friend of his money to accuse Roy Moore of sexual assault, has since been found dead in a lake in New Jersey.
The article reads in part –
Doug Lewis made headlines recently when he exposed the Washington Post for bribing women more than $1,000 each to claim that Roy Moore molested him, including the famous “14-year-old” whose fishy story has captivated liberals who want to keep a good conservative man from getting elected to the Senate.
Now, his entire Twitter history has been deleted and until last night no one knew where he was – and where he was is not good at all.
A man walking his dog near Pinellas Park in New Jersey discovered something floating in the water as he walked past the lake in the center of the park.
This is a fake news article. In fact this is two fake stories in one. We debunk both stories separately.
1. Did Doug Lewis expose Washington Post for paying women to accuse Roy Moore?
False. The entirety of the evidence to support this accusation is a tweet from a Twitter user Doug Lewis – Twitter handle Umpire43 – saying as much. However a cursory glance of this anonymous users Tweets reveals that this is just a troll account.
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For example, this Twitter user has previously claimed to hold contradicting positions. During the election, the user claimed to be a pollster for Ipsos, and then later the owner of a polling company. The same user also claimed to be a 22 year old veteran of the Navy, and then a baseball umpire with 50 years’ experience. Bixarrely, this user also claimed to have worked at the American consulate in Calgary where he obtained proof that Ted Cruz’s father’s birth certificate has been forged. A full run down of this Twitter users contradictory tweets have been investigated by The Daily Beast here.
And after other social media users poked holes in his most current claim (he claimed his two brothers died in Vietnam and then later claimed they both still stand for the National Anthem) the troll account was deleted, presumably by the owner.
As such, since the entire claim of the Washington Post paying women to accuse Roy Moore relies on this Twitter user saying as much, we can dismiss it as likely fake.
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2. Was Doug Lewis found dead in a lake?
A subsequent rumour claims that Doug Lewis was found dead. However this is easily shown to be fake news because…
– The article comes from a known fake news website – ReaganWasRight.com – the site has a disclaimer…
The crybaby, ivory tower elitists at Snopes have decided we don’t qualify as satire, but we feel the disclaimer still needs to be as plain as the lack of Googling skills in conservative America:
…
Nothing on this site is real. It is satire. Call it “fan fiction” if you prefer.
– The article uses fake identities, such as “county sheriff Jacob Burns”
– The photo used to show Doug Lewis actually traces back to a Quora user named Robert Todd.
As such, this article is just a combination of different fake claims and should not be circulated as genuine.