aleia77

[aleia77]

Fact Check #4

For this Buzzsumo assignment, I typed in "fake chicken" into the search bar, expecting to see something along the lines of the meat industry and all the stuff that is put into our food that we should not be consuming. I came across something that I was not expecting at all, which was a viral trend of people cooking their chicken in Nyquil. This is enough to get anybody's attention, so obviously I wanted to know more!

Clearly, as someone with any common sense, I found it hard to believe that anyone would ACTUALLY cook their chicken in Nyquil. Knowing that this was a viral trend that I was unaware of until this point, I clicked on the link, which you can read for yourself, here: https://www.eater.com/23365749/sleepy-nyquil-chicken-tiktok-stunt-food.

As I continued to read this article, I learned that the FDA actually had to sen out a message urging people to NOT cook thir chicken in Nyquil, as it seemed to become trendy on Tik Tok to do so, and we all know how popular Tik Tok is. You could get anyone to do anything and everyone sees it when it comes to that app. What makes this trend to lethal is the fact that when you boil medication, it releases vapors that can be harmful to the consumer and the person who is cooking the chicken. The article compared this trend similar to the Tide Pod eating trend, where people would put Tide Pods in their mouths and eat them-- clearly a stupid thing to do.

Luckily, the article went on to explain that these "stunts" like the Tid Pod challenge and Nyquil chicken are mainly made to just get views and make someone talk about it--not to actually try it. But does everyone know that? Younger children may see the trend and actually try it themselves, which is actually very terrible, realizing how many people see viral videos, no matter the age of the viewer. I felt it was necessary for me to do some digging, and see if some people ACTUALLY consumed this chicken.

I first decided to look more into the information regarding the person who wrote this article on Buzzsumo to see if she can be trusted. The writer of this article is Bettina Makalintal, who is a reporter for Eater.com, and she covers mainly food culture. I looked a bit more into her profile and saw that she actually covered a couple other viral stories of people doing stunts with food for views. I feel that she is probably trust worthy. I still wanted to see if someone actually performed the Nyquil chicken stunt and ate it, so I googled it. I used the website https://www.wth.com/article/features/trending-today/are-people-really-cooking-chicken-in-nyquil/531-75da4ece-4402-4659-a4bf-29081c0d32a0#:~:text=It%20could%20also%20hurt%20your,in%20any%20truly%20viral%20capacity. to get more information. It stated that there was not any evidence supporting that it was a real "challenge." It stated that they do not know of anyone who truly went along and acted out on this challenge, but nevertheless, the FDA still had to send out a warning against it to remind people that this is NOT a good idea, for those who actually need a reminder. It was indeed something that could be found on the internet, but there is no evidence of people actually consuming the chicken cooked in Nyquil. I am actually relieved that I had not found anything pointing to people completing this trend and consuming it. I made sure to also google "Nyquil chicken deaths" and there are no reports that anyone was harmed by it. I'll take that as a good thing and a confirmation that people still have common sense.

[aleia77]

Fact Check #3

For this assignment, I chose to write about Sean Patrick Hannity, who I have never heard of until this day. While looking for someone "lesser known" I came across his name and decided to dig a little deeper. I found out that he occasionally posts on twitter, so that was great start. After doing a bit more research, I came to find out that he actually a writer, talk show and radio host, broadcast news analysist and political commenter. On that note, he is also known to be highly close to Donald Trump.

With that in mind, I decided to find a tweet he posted regarding politics, and yes, I found one!

I figured this was a great topic to fact check Sean Hannity's credibility, keeping note that he is close to Trump. I can make my own assumption that Sean Hannity will be against anything that goes against Trump.

After reading this tweet and seeing pictures that have a big "X" across it, I can make sense of the fact that someone before me has already fact-checked this man and his credibility. So, I dug even deeper so understand his credibility, since he is for sure biased, and actually is able to speak on important things to the public, since he is a political commenter.

Sean Hannity talks on Fox News. He has a huge platform obviously, so what he says is definitely going into ears, and possibly not out the other. What I mean is, he is definitely influential. He makes a 40-million-dollar salary just from Fox News. I found out that he also was one of the people who wanted the votes to be recounted for Trump losing the election. Just knowing this, I know that he is skewed to a specific side, and what comes out of his mouth will most likely be in favor of a certain side.

I came across this article from The Washington Post, Is Sean Hannity a journalist? Fox News hosts' role key in Dominion lawsuit - The Washington Post

Ooh! The article states, "The issue could cut both ways for Fox, which argues that hosts who aired false claims of the election fraud acted as pundits with the leeway to express opinions -- but also seeks to protect their private communications with 'sources' (Barr, Jeremy)." The article later goes on to state something along the lines of Sean Hannity not considering himself a "journalist", but his boss feels differently. His boss says that he reports a "strong opinion." With that being said, I take that as Sean posts what HE and Fox News feel is accurate. This actually caused a lawsuit against Fox, for Sean reporting false claims.

Keeping this news under my belt, I can confirm that Sean is someone who is on social media frequently, but that he is very biased. What he says gets posted all over the news, and when people think something comes from the news, they're likely to believe it.

I am indifferent about this man's credibility. For one, he works for the news, who wants us to view things a certain way, but also is an extremely biased person due to his political views. I would say his credibility depends on who is listening. He was already fact checked by another website and known to have made false claims on the news. I would say, regarding this man, take anything he says with a grain of salt. He has a big platform but has been known to report false claims.

“Is Sean Hannity a Journalist? Role of Hosts Is Key in Fox News Lawsuit.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 22 Mar. 2023, www.washingtonpost.com/media/2023/03/20/fox-lawsuit-hosts-journalists-hannity-dominion/.

[aleia77]

Fact check #2

I think many of us have seen this photo circulating the internet for a few months. I came across it again and wanted to check its accuracy. This image is what appears to be Chris Hadfield with marijuana in space. I have seen the photo before, but never decided to dig deeper to see whether it was real or just another photoshopped image to make people laugh.

I started off by right clicking the image and searching the image with google. I scrolled down to the bottom and clicked the third link containing the photo which had been posted by 10news.com.

The articles title on 10news.com is "Fact or Fiction: Astronaut shows off bag of pot?"

Right off the bat, there is a video from the news cast with this photo! The news speaker explained the photo had been circulating the internet, saying that Chris is testing the effects of marijuana in space. The video then proceeds to show the real photo, which is actually a bag filled with plastic Easter eggs, that he snuck on for his fellow astronauts.

I then typed in "10news.com" into google to check if it is reputable, and learned that it is a legit news broadcast television station located in Sandiego, CA.

I know that I can stop there, but I decided to also use snopes.com, since it was talked about in class. Right at the top of the article, the photo is rated false. Snopes also mentioned that the original tweet posted on Chris Hadfield's twitter was titled, "Don't tell my crew, but I brought them Easter Eggs :)" how cute!

So, this picture is not accurate. The bag was filled with Easter eggs, not weed! I decided to post the original photo/tweet, as well!

Rozzen, Michael. “Fact or Fiction: Astronaut Shows off Bag of Pot?” ABC 10 News San Diego KGTV, ABC 10 News San Diego KGTV, 27 Nov. 2018, www.10news.com/news/fact-or-fiction/fact-or-fiction-astronaut-shows-off-bag-of-pot.

Evon, Dan. “Did Astronaut Chris Hadfield Test the Effects of Marijuana in Space?” Snopes, Snopes.com, 26 Nov. 2018, www.snopes.com/fact-check/iss-test-marijuana-space/.

[aleia77]

Fact Check #1

I came across this video while scrolling through Instagram not too long ago, and when I was brainstorming on things I could fact check, this came to mind! I found it again through google. If you would like to watch the video for yourself, which comes from Tik Tok, the link is: https://www.tiktok.com/@christalluster/video/7244690898464869675

What is shown in the video, is Christal voicing over a post she came across, basically acknowledging the fact that someone has not seen lightning bugs recently, while agreeing herself. This really sparked my interest since I love lightning bugs. So much that I even have a tattoo of one! Clearly, I had to do some extra research, because I saw this video around a time when I noticed I, too, have not seen lightning bugs in a while. This alone gave me a reason to fact check. I felt like this was definitely something I would like to find out is more serious of a matter. I typed into google, "are lightning bugs going extinct?"

I used the Washington post to fact check, since they are reliable. The article I used was Why fireflies are going extinct and what you can do about it - Washington Post

According to, Grandoni, who wrote this post for the Washington Post, "Nearly 1 in 3 firefly species in the United States and Canada may be threatened with extinction, firefly experts estimate in a recent comprehensive assessment." Lightning bug larvae spends a lot of time underground before coming out in their final form during the summer. "But much of the swampy soil young fireflies need to thrive is increasingly being bulldozed for golf courses, suburban subdivisions and other types of development, making habitat loss a top threat," says Grandoni. Lighting bugs are losing their places to live because of construction, leaving them without homes to live and somewhere to reproduce. Lightning bugs need grass to thrive, as well. I also learned that artificial light, or light pollution is a big contributor to the loss of lightning bugs, too. This can be caused from something as simple as streetlights, so imagine all the damage being caused from bigger things transmitting artificial light. It's also simple to fix this part, though! Just turn off lights when you can! Light tricks lighting bugs into thinking that it is daytime, so they would not come out, since they are a nocturnal insect. The light keeps them from breeding, since it tricks them in a way. "For many fireflies, there is a painful lack of data on even baseline populations. While some species remain abundant, overall, we risk the loss of firefly biodiversity" says Grandoni. Reading that part made me feel a bit better about the issue of not seeing as many, but still skeptical of the fact that we could lose lightning bugs completely as time goes on and deforestation and unnecessary light pollution continues.

I would not say that Christal's post is completely false, since there definitely is a decrease in the overall population of lightning bugs. Some places are not suffering this loss as much as others. The part that is inaccurate is the persons post she voiced over saying that they "disappeared."

So, I wanted to fact check the Washington Post just a bit, for my own comfort and knowledge. I checked out worldanimalfoundation.org. While reading through that, they are not going "extinct", but some can be considered endangered. "They evaluated 128 species and found that 11% of species were threatened with extinction, 2% are near threatened, and 33% were categorized as being “of least concern” for the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species" according to The World Animal Foundation. They also mentioned a contributor of the overall decrease in lightning bugs, which is pesticides. The Washington Post did not mention this. The World Animal Foundation mentions, "These insecticides can also be harmful when fireflies ingest contaminated prey. Most problematically, aerial sprays of certain insecticides targeting mosquitoes are often conducted at dusk to maximize their efficiency, but this is also when fireflies are most active, placing them at risk." Basically, the pesticides used to rid places of mosquitoes and other harmful pests are of course harming those insects who help. This alone is an issue that could overall contribute to the potential "disappearance" of these insects all together.

I am overall coming to the conclusion that the original Tik Tok post made by Christal is misleading, but not completely false. It did get my mind going with wanting to do my own research to fact check the person's post that she voiced over. I am also glad I did go that extra mile to find out for myself so that I can keep an open mind about things I can do to diminish the risk of losing lightning bugs, and maybe inspire whoever is reading this to do the same.

Works cited:

Grandoni, Dino. “Summer Is Here. Where Are the Fireflies?” The Washington Post, WP Company, 30 June 2023, www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2023/firefly-summer-extinction/.

“Dimming Lights: Are Fireflies Endangered? What’s Causing Their Decline?” WAF, 7 June 2023, worldanimalfoundation.org/advocate/how-to-help-animals/params/post/1276007/save-the-fireflies.