Throughout history, people have fallen for fake news. People create stories that sound like they have legitimate sources when they are, in fact, simply fabrications designed to fool a reader. Sometimes, people make these lies up just for fun.
In the early 1920s, the Toronto Mail and Empire ran a story about two scientists. These scientists, Dr. Schmierkase and Dr. Butterbrod were said to have discovered “the fossil of the whale that has swallowed Jonah.”[1]
This story appeared in Toronto, and by the next day, priests and preachers all over the city were reading the story from the pulpit. The story was amazing! For once, people felt like they had proof that the Bible story of Jonah and the whale was true. By some miracle, a story from thousands of years ago about a boy who was swallowed by a whale proved to be true.
Soon enough, newspapers across the city and even further started reprinting the article. The story spread like wildfire and excited large groups of people everywhere. Nevertheless, the story turned out to be fake.
Only a few days after the original article was printed, the Toronto Mail and Empire published a second story exposing the original story for what it was, a hoax. They retracted the entire thing and apologized for the inconvenience.
As it turns out, the original story was written by Charles Landen Clarke, a journalist who liked inventing news items based on biblical stories. His original article included sources from the Babylon Gazette and the Jerusalem Times to make his stories appear even more realistic. Clarke put time and effort into his pieces in order to make them as believable as possible.
As it turns out, Schmierkase in German means cheese. Butterbrod means bread.[2]
[1] Strange History: Mysterious Artifacts, Macabre Legends, Boneheaded Blunders & Mind-Blowing Facts (Ashland, Oregon: Portable Press, n.d.).
[2] Strange History: Mysterious Artifacts, Macabre Legends, Boneheaded Blunders & Mind-Blowing Facts (Ashland, Oregon: Portable Press, n.d.).
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