Type Satirical news Editor Dave Weasel | Format Website Website thevalleyreport.com | |
Staff writers Dave Weasel, Eric Nordquist, Konrad Anderson Launched 2015 in Sherman Oaks, California | ||
The Valley Report is a satirical website which posts fictional news articles related to real and fictitious events. Snopes.com describes it as a fake news site, incorrectly citing "While the Valley Report‘s “About” page bears no disclaimer, it credits a comedian (not a reporter) as responsible for the site’s content.". The Valley Report has over 2M monthly readers.
Contents
History
Dave Weasel started The Valley Report in August 2015. Weasel told Buzzfeed in an interview he prefers to write content that offers social commentary, but will dedicate 10% of his articles towards creating "hoaxes".
The Daily Mail reported that Weasel estimates a third of the people sharing the articles do not realize it's fake.
Third party reporting as real news
Articles from The Valley Report have been reported by third party outlets as real news, including several ARN stations like KIIS 106.5 reported the highly circulated "Woman stabs boyfriend for not liking Instagram selfie fast enough" and even wrote up their own version of the event, but deleted it upon realizing it was fake. Stations like The Kyle and Jackie O Show, 97.3 FM (Brisbane) and Mix 102.3 have all reported this story as real.
Celebrities like Bryanboy and Claudia Jordan have also shared the story as real.
Radio stations 89.7 The River in Iowa and 107.9 The Mix in Maine have read the story "Woman arrested for stinking up the bathroom and closing down restaurant" verbatim on-air.
Snopes.com Has reported four separate viral articles as being fake.