A roundup of some of the most popular, but completely untrue, headlines of the week. None of these stories are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. AP checked these out; here are the real facts: NOT REAL: U.S. Department of State suspends New York Times license THE FACTS: The account claiming the State Department suspended the newspaper\u2019s operational permit after it criticized Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is \u201ccompletely false,\u201d Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha says. There is no permit required for U.S. news organizations and there is no issue with the newspaper\u2019s foreign press credentials, she said. A website made up to look like a CNN outlet says in a story published last month that the State Department accused The Times of \u201cbreaking communication code of ethics\u201d in a matter that could cause diplomatic challenges between the two countries. NOT REAL: Sarah Palin out of her coma, able to identify her attackers THE FACTS: More than half a dozen sites have run the same verbatim account of a hit-and-run accident on California\u2019s Pacific Coast Highway involving the former Alaska governor, followed up by stories alleging Palin emerged from her coma to identify her assailants. A spokesman for Palin tells the AP the reports are \u201cas fake as fake can be.\u201d The sites report that the accident happened April 28, when Palin\u2019s Twitter and Facebook accounts were active. The 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate has been a target of hoax articles in the past. NOT REAL: Hobby Lobby just announced plan to close ALL stores THE FACTS: The arts and crafts retail chain has 700-plus stores and says it\u2019s adding 60 more in 2017. A story published by Daily Info News, The Washington Feed and other outlets said the chain\u2019s CEO said it could go out of business if it pays fines for violating a mandate under the Affordable Care Act to provide employees access to emergency contraception. Hobby Lobby won an exemption from the law based on religious preferences in a 2014 Supreme Court decision. NOT REAL: 2 moms, 5 kids killed in car crash in (insert place here) THE FACTS: Multiple websites have appropriated many details from a true account of a June 2016 minivan accident in Southern California that killed two mothers and four children while two fathers survived. The stories circulating with dozens of different headlines change the U.S. county where it occurred, and in some cases add the fathers\u2019 names and varying ages of the children. NOT REAL: Robertson: David Bowie is not dead, he was kidnapped by demons summoned by rock music THE FACTS: This account first published by politicops.com last year and recently recycled by admitted hoax site uspoln.com began with an accurate answer by \u201c700 Club\u201d host Pat Robertson to a teenager\u2019s written question on whether it was OK to listen to rock music. Robertson replied that some rock wasn\u2019t \u201call that bad,\u201d but some \u201cis just evil.\u201d A spokesman for Robertson\u2019s Christian Broadcasting Network tells the AP that the evangelist made no mention of Bowie, who died Jan. 10, 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A roundup of some of the most popular, but completely untrue, headlines of the week. None of these stories are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. AP checked these out; here are the real facts: NOT REAL: U.S. Department of State suspends New York Times license THE FACTS: The account claiming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37321,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37320"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}