A story is spreading online that claims a teenager from Missouri is suing his parents for naming him “gaylord”.
The story first appeared on the website WorldNewsDailyReport.com but has been later reposted verbatim on other websites. The story reads in part –
A 17-year old boy from Missouri has launched a civil lawsuit against his parents for naming him Gaylord as a child, a name which allegedly caused him to suffer from a lot of mockeries and even serious bullying.
Gaylord Williams from the small city of Kirksville in Missouri is suing his parents, Dave and Carol Williams, for “deliberately making his life miserable” by giving him “an outdated and prejudicial first name”.
The story is fake. None of the details in the story can be verified and the photos in the article have been stolen from elsewhere on the Internet. For example one photo used to identify Gaylord’s parents was actually taken from a Telegraph article about a defendant in court case concerning squatters rights.
But more tellingly is that the article originally derived from a known fake news website – WorldNewsDailyReport.com – a site that specialises in the delivery and publication of fake news.
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World News Daily Report has a disclaimer on their website that reads in part –
WNDR assumes however all responsibility for the satirical nature of its articles and for the fictional nature of their content. All characters appearing in the articles in this website – even those based on real people – are entirely fictional and any resemblance between them and any persons, living, dead, or undead is purely a miracle.
Thus the site is just another example of a fake news “fauxtire” site. You can read more about fauxtire websites here and how they differ from genuine satire websites.