Breaking news: Internet erupts as Hillary Clinton confesses: "I am the mother of an extraterrestrial love child." [View all]

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Sun Dec 28, 2025, 08:16 PM - Edit history (3)

DU is getting to be a hotbed of things that never happened. It's not enough that DUers are beginning to post AI-generated deepfake videos. Worse, DU is being overrun with stories invented by the odious clickbait site Rawstory about a few influencers tweeting back and forth. Rawstory treats this as an earthshaking event, and online it goes.

For examples of the "Internet erupts" theme at DU, see: https://duckduckgo.com/?sites=democraticunderground.com&q=internet+erupts&ia=web

Sun Dec 28, 2025: 'Weird': Internet erupts after Karoline Leavitt's apparent admission of pregnancy faux pas
Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/karoline-leavitt-2674832565/

Mon Dec 22, 2025: 'Astonishing': Internet erupts after canned '60 Minutes' segment leaked
https://www.rawstory.com/60-minutes-2674823138/

Mon Dec 22, 2025: 'Going full North Korean': Internet erupts after Trump's new battleship announcement
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-battleships-2674822990/

Sun Nov 23, 2025: Internet erupts as MAGA influencers exposed for being based in other countries
Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/maga-foreign-tie-exposed/

Under no circumstances does this constitute news. It never happened that "the internet erupted" upon the occurrence of any of these underlying events. On the bright side, at least it's not a story Rawstory stole from someone else and pretended was one of their own.

Please, may we ban:
1) the use of "Internet erupts ..." in a headline at DU? This should be enforced in particular in Late Breaking News.
2) citing Rawstory as the source of a story in Late Breaking News?
3) pretending that Rawstory is anything other a clickbait site unworthy of trust? If Rawstory said that my mom loved me, I'd get a second source.

I will allow one exception:

Entire planet erupts in joyous celebration at the death of Donald Trump.

That, I'll be fine with.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.