Buffalo Chronicle

The Buffalo Chronicle is a fake news website.[1][2] It has run fake stories concerning one or more Canadian politicians,[3] and has paid to have its content about them run on Facebook.[4] It was founded in the United States in 2014.[5]

Buffalo Chronicle
Type of site
Fake news website
Founded2014
URLbuffalochronicle.com

Content

Prior to the 2019 Canadian federal election, the Buffalo Chronicle claimed without evidence that Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau was looking to suppress a supposed sex scandal involving a student at the West Point Grey Academy, where Trudeau taught at between 1998 and 2001,[3][6] and that they had seen a "password-protected" non-disclosure agreement sent by the supposed student's father.[6] The latter claim was cited in January 2022 by InfoWars host Owen Shroyer, who claimed that Trudeau had signed a million-dollar non-disclosure agreement with a minor who had allegedly accused him of sexual misconduct.[6]

In November 2020, the website promoted false claims that a mafia boss was paid $3 million to forge 300,000 votes for Joe Biden in that year's presidential election.[7]

In 2022, a satirical cannabis hoax Buffalo Chronicle story about Amtrak selling cannabis onboard U.S. trains, and allowing consumption in designated smoking cars, at the urging of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a proponent of cannabis legalization, was reprinted in its entirety in Railway Age along with commentary. The story had Schumer saying the regulation "will improve the passenger experience and increase ticket sales".[8]

Operation

The website is operated by Matthew Ricchiazzi, who sought office in several New York state elections without success. A 2019 investigation by BuzzFeed News and the Toronto Star found that Ricchiazzi had previously offered to publish positive or negative coverage of political candidates for money.[9]

In 2019, the website claimed to have "never been sued for defamation or any other matter" or received a cease and desist letter.[10]

References
  1. Ling, Justin (March 18, 2019). "The Buffalo Chronicle Is Not A Reliable News Outlet (yet people who should know better keep sharing their stuff)". Canadaland.
  2. Brachfeld, Ben (January 31, 2022). "Website spreads fake Brooklyn news to thousands". The Brooklyn Paper.
  3. Dan MacGuill (October 9, 2019). "Did Justin Trudeau Stop Teaching at a Vancouver Private School Under the Cloud of a Sex Scandal?". Snopes.com.
  4. Silverman, Craig; Oved, Marco Chown; Lytvynenko, Jane (October 29, 2019). "The Buffalo Chronicle Ran Facebook Ads Promoting Dubious Trudeau Stories". BuzzFeed News.
  5. Lytvynenko, Jane; Oved, Marco Chown; Silverman, Craig (October 18, 2019). "The Canadian Election's Surprise Influencer Is A Buffalo Man Targeting Canadians With Viral Disinformation". BuzzFeed News.
  6. Khandelwal, Devika (January 20, 2022). "False: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had sexual relations with a minor and had her sign a two and a quarter million dollar non-disclosure agreement so no one would find out about it". Logically. Retrieved February 18, 2023.
  7. "The local news site behind fake Biden 'mafia plot'". BBC News. November 21, 2020. Retrieved February 18, 2023.
  8. William C. Vantuono (October 24, 2022), "All Aboard Amtrak's Mary Jane Limited?", Railway Age{{citation}}: CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  9. Lytvynenko, Jane; Oved, Marco Chown; Silverman, Craig (October 19, 2019). "The Owner Of The Buffalo Chronicle Once Offered To Publish Negative Political Stories For Money". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved February 18, 2023.
  10. Coleman, Alistair (October 21, 2019). "Website spreads untrue Trudeau rumours ahead of Canada election". BBC.

Further reading
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.