4 B.S. News Stories That Fooled Your Facebook Friends

Let us pick out the latest viral turds for you.
4 B.S. News Stories That Fooled Your Facebook Friends

We have some good news and bad news, Internet: The good news is that April Fool's Day is over, so you don't have to be on the lookout for hilariously fake stories being passed off as truth. The bad news is that (as we've established over and over) for the media every day is April Fool's Day now, so forget what we said about not being on the lookout -- or just let us pick out the latest viral turds for you:

Nope, a Teenager Didn't Save the Government $400 Million by Changing Fonts

Every now and then the world is blessed with a viral headline so nonsensical that it sounds like the dying words of a stroke victim. Such is the case with this completely unquestioned story being passed from CNN to Fox, Huffington Post, and CBS:

Teen to government: Change your typeface, save millions By Madeleine Stix, CNN March 29, 2014 - -Updated 0730 GMT (1530 HKT)
edition.cnn.com

"Government to teen: If you say Comic Sans, you're going to Gitmo."

Apparently if the government switched their font type from Times New Roman to Garamond, they could save a fortune on printing ink costs. It's that simple! In fact, why haven't they even considered it before now?

Maybe because the government doesn't pay for ink -- it mostly pays per printed page, so a two-word "Fuck you" memo to Putin costs the same to taxpayers as a page full of One Direction lyrics. Even ignoring that, a lot of government documents are printed with lasers, and even ignoring that, Garamond is a smaller and therefore less legible font, and if you enlarge it to the same size as Times New Roman, it uses up the same amount of ink. But other than that, this story is completely legit.

Bradley Cooper Is Not Going to Be the Next Indiana Jones

From the increasingly long list of headlines that make us go "At least it's not Shia LaBeouf":

Bradley Cooper to star in Indiana Jones 5 reboot? Ann Lee Wednesday 26 Mar 2014 9:04 am
metro.co.uk

Yes, the guy from The Hangover is to lead an Indiana Jones reboot! According to the various nerd blogs reporting it, Shawshank's own Frank Darabont has pitched a draft that would reboot the franchise with Bradley Cooper as the frontrunner choice to replace Harrison Ford. This scoop is so ahead of the news, in fact, that even Darabont himself and producer Frank Marshall had no friggin' clue that such a reboot exists.

Bradley Cooper to star in Indiana Jones 5 reboot? Ann Lee Wednesday 26 Mar 2014 904 am 269 hate on Facebook chate on Twiitter
metro.co.uk

"Oh yeah? Well how do you explain this high-quality screenshot we found?"

At this point it shouldn't surprise you that the story comes from Latino Review -- a rumor site that has as much credibility in the movie business as a 17-year-old concessionist. Looks like we're back to praying quietly for Harrison Ford to move on before they try to sell us Indiana Jones and the Kung Fu Mummies from Space or something in 2016.

Come On, Guys ... Coffee Smoking Isn't a New Teen Trend

"Your teen may be in danger" stories are the bread and butter of local news stations everywhere, but what happens when you run out of things to scare parents with? Easy: Go on YouTube, find two or more videos of teens doing the same dumb thing, and call it a trend. Case in point:

Forget tobacco, pot: Teens turn to smoking coffee By Gail Smith, Orlando Sentinel 8.38 p.m. EDT. March 29, 2014
orlandosentinel.com

"Next up: Are teens drinking telephones? Yes. Definitely."

Meanwhile, Gawker seemed skeptical, but still gave us this headline:

Q Search Stupid Teens Reportedly Smoking Coffee for the Caffeine High
gawker.com

"Smart Reporters Reportedly Blowing Smoke for the Smug High"

Other outlets like the Blaze, Live Science, and of course various local news sites have been cashing in the hits for a story that comes down to a single local news article that cites a couple YouTube videos and (we're quoting here) "doctors" saying that coffee smoking has spiked. What doctors? How much did it spike? The news editor apparently overdosed on cappuccino before he could find out. God damn you, coffee!

North Korea Isn't Requiring All Men to Have Kim Jong Un Haircuts

North Korea has finally gone too far. Forget about the nukes and human rights violations: Kim Jong Un's biggest crime is bringing back "the fade" ... by force.

26 March 2014 Last updated Share at 14:26 ET North Korea: Students required to get Kim Jong-un haircut
bbc.com

"The Supreme Leader demands the supreme radness of Kid N' Play be recognized," an official statement said.

That BBC report on North Korea's hairdo laws was echoed by Time and other sites that followed suit by dropping the already ridiculous "only students have to look like Kim Jong Un" part and turning it into "all 12 million Korean men must" -- despite the fact that the story comes from Radio Free Asia, a nonprofit funded partially by the U.S. and not an actual overseas source.

And while that's probably enough to make it dubious, the Washington Post took it upon themselves to perform an out-of-the-box investigative process called "asking people who live there," the result being a resounding choir of guys who had no freaking clue their haircuts were apparently now illegal.

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4 B.S. News Stories That Fooled Your Facebook Friends

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