Anatomy of a viral lie - Nancy Pelosi's $25M FL Mansion (it's not)

[Edge-]

https://www.thebulwark.com/conservat...-nancy-pelosi/

Over the weekend, Conservatism Inc. found a new scandal to promote: A false report that Nancy Pelosi had purchased a $25 million mansion in Florida, home to 2024 hopeful, Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Trump. To underscore: This story is false. Nancy Pelosi has not bought a $25 million mansion in Florida.

But watching how the fake news blew through the conservative ecosystem is illuminating.

The lib-owning idea went something like this: Nancy Pelosi and her ilk have overreacted to COVID-19 at every turn. Ron DeSantis is a freedom loving governor of the greatest state in America. And now Pelosi was all but admitting that DeSantis was right by spending $25 million on Florida real estate. What an elitist hypocrite!

The story appeared to get its start on a fringe webpage called Big League Politics. Note the site’s ads. You can’t make this stuff up.

Here’s how the story was sourced:

Corrupt Democrat oligarch Nancy Pelosi is reportedly finalizing the purchase of a $25 million mansion in South Florida, departing California amid the state’s decline as a result of policy she’s long supported.

Pelosi is slated to become a resident of Jupiter Island in Martin County, an elite community with the distinction of its residents possessing the highest per capita income of any municipality in the United States.

Sources cited elite South Florida real estate brokers who confirmed Pelosi was in the closing stages of the purchase of the property.

Nancy Pelosi just went into contract to buy a Florida oceanfront mansion listed for $25,000,000
Just checked with top broker in area who confirmed this information
10,000 sf property on Jupiter Island just changed to “pending” on MLS pic.twitter.com/jDsweOQeec
— Gabe Hoffman @gabeHoff) November 23, 2021
Pelosi was observed scouting out properties in Florida earlier this year, with some speculating the powerful Speaker of the House and oligarch would retire in the aftermath of the 2022 midterms.

In case you’re wondering about the sourcing, that @gabehoff tweet seems to have disappeared. And as for the idea that Pelosi has been “house hunting” in Florida, that link goes to another Big League Politics story which makes the assertion based on a tweet from Marjorie Taylor Greene.

So this wasn’t crackerjack stuff to begin with.

The Big League Politics story was then picked up by Fox News contributor and “Investigative Reporter” Sara Carter’s site, though the story on Carter’s site carries the byline of “Staff Writer.”

As is usually the case, after these fringe outlets write vague, unsourced stories, slightly more respectable conservative sites aggregated them under the guise of “according to” various “reports” without noting how disreputable the sources of the reports are, or making any attempt to confirm them. These aggregations exist solely to farm clicks.

Consider this report from Washington Examiner staff reporter Haisten Willis, reprinted in The Gazette:

The internet is buzzing with rumors that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is purchasing a $25 million mansion on Florida’s Atlantic coast, just 25 miles from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.

Pelosi, one of the richest members of Congress, reportedly owns nine properties worth a combined total of more than $20 million already. But if she picks up the 10,000-square-foot beachfront property on prestigious Jupiter Island, it would give the speaker a big presence in a state led by defiant Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Several south Florida Twitter users say they have sources confirming that Pelosi is in fact buying the house, which is listed for sale on several real estate sites. Local property tax records list the home as having last changed hands in 2015 and still list that buyer as the current owner. But Zillow and other listing services state that a sale is “pending.”

That same reporter, Haisten Willis, eventually re-wrote the story—still leading with a slightly altered paragraph—and no indication that the story had been edited:

An internet rumor that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is purchasing a $25 million mansion on Florida’s Atlantic coast, just 25 miles from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, may just be too juicy to be true.[/quote[

Note the word “may”—as if no one really knows if this rumor is true or not. It’s not until four paragraphs later that Willis gives the relevant information:

Drew Hammill, Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff, told the Washington Examiner the speaker of the House has no interest in buying a house in the Sunshine State.

“This is completely false,” Hammill said. “There’s no such pending sale nor is the family looking or interested.”

So random people on Twitter said that Pelosi had already bought a $25 million dollar house. Pelosi’s office called the story “completely false.” And the Washington Examiner could only say that the story “may just be too juicy to be true.” After all, can any of us truly know anything?

By then, the DeSantis stans and were on the case. The governor’s spox, Christina Pushaw—whose Twitter bio says she is here to “debunk false Narratives about Florida…”—tweeted out the story with a hand smack to the face emoji.

Sean Hannity also tweeted it out

As did Dinesh D’Souza:

The good news is that someone was willing to do actual journalism.

The bad news is that the someone was Realtor.com, where a writer named Claudine Zap—who does not appear to be an “investigative reporter” at Fox News—actually made some calls, got to the truth, and wrote a responsible piece headlined “No, Nancy Pelosi Did Not Buy a $25M Mansion in Jupiter Island, FL.”“This is completely false,” said Drew Hammill, deputy chief of staff for the speaker. “There’s no such pending sale, nor is the family looking or interested.”

The $25 million mansion in question is pending sale, which means the property has found a buyer. It’s just not Pelosi.

“I have no idea where the rumor started in regards to Nancy Pelosi,” says the listing agent, Beth Bourque with Southern Shore Properties, who has been swamped with calls for the last week asking about the supposed Pelosi purchase.

“I keep saying I can’t disclose who the buyer is, but it’s not Pelosi,” she says.

The new owners are just as displeased by the unwelcome fuss about their newly purchased home.

“They definitely don’t want the rumors out there,” Bourque says. “They don’t want that sort of attention.”

I’m sure the corrections and apologies will be flooding in now that Realtor.com has done the shoeleather journalism to debunk this wildly false claim.

So we start with -

Random poster on Twitter used as a viable source (we've seen that repeatedly in these parts) ->

Far right 'news' outlet (Big League Politics has long been a huge source of actual "FAKE NEWS" and has little reporting that's remotely factual) that uncritically reports the information without bothering to do any actual work outside of writing a 100 word wrapper about a Twitter post ->

To the personal sites of "reporters" who hold jobs at conservative media companies like Fox ->

To other reporters who begin mainstreaming it on conservative leaning sites like Washington Examiner where they bury the lede (that no, she hasn't purchased anything) but keep the sensational headline ->

Straight to bigger name conservative media personalities and influencers like Hannity and D'Souza where it gets signal blasted to hell on a social media platform that does little to nothing to combat misinformation.

It missed the Bannon-strategy of getting mainstream media to report on it from there, in part because the tactic isn't as effective as it once was.

But also because apparently, someone named "Claudine Zap" who writes for Realtor.com, actually bothered to like, contact the office for the Speaker - who confirmed she's not buying property in Florida - and the realtor - who confirmed that while the sale is pending, that it's not being sold to Nancy Pelosi though won't say who (because she can't).

We see this repeated time and time again, all with the point of a piece of misinformation originating on Twitter, to be "validated" by conservative media, who validate the news enough for bigger conservative social media accounts to re-broadcast the original (often deleted) content that came from Twitter to begin with.

It's a bit like a human centipede, but with everyone's mouth connected to someone else's butthole so that it's just circular pooping.

The article itself features plenty of links (too much work to format them here) and images/links to the social posts.

[GreenJesus]

It's really disgusting how the media does this now a days. Perfect example is how much misinformation was passed around about Nick Sandman and Kyle Rittenhouse. "Journalists" are the enemy of the people that hide behind "freedom of speech" to keep peddling their lies and lazy reporting which severely damages our country. They need to verify primary sources instead of just linking to secondary sources without doing any research.

Also, everyone knows that she has tens of millions of dollars, so why lie about a house she is buying? Better avenue is tracking when she bought stocks and what legislation/CEO passed by her desk around that time. I wonder what the returns would be if you bought stock in every company Nancy Pelosi invests in the second it becomes public.

[Breccia]

It's re--

Let's see:
1) Deflecting.
2) A Trump supporter trying to say "verify primary sources" while backing Trump who lies all the time about everything
3) Mentioned Kyle Rittenhouse in a thread that's not about Kyle Rittenhouse

Let me guess: you believed the $25 million mansion story and mentioned it to others? Because I can't think of any other reason you'd come to this thread to mention Kyle Rittenhouse and not the actual subject matter, namely, the Pelosi mansion story.

[GreenJesus]

Let's see:
1) Deflecting.
2) A Trump supporter trying to say "verify primary sources" while backing Trump who lies all the time about everything
3) Mentioned Kyle Rittenhouse in a thread that's not about Kyle Rittenhouse

Let me guess: you believed the $25 million mansion story and mentioned it to others? Because I can't think of any other reason you'd come to this thread to mention Kyle Rittenhouse and not the actual subject matter, namely, the Pelosi mansion story.

I've never heard of the mansion story. And the mansion story is fake so whats there to talk about specifically about the mansion?

I voted for trump in 2016 but Biden in 2020.

[Breccia]

I've never heard of the mansion story.

That's just a stupid thing to say in a thread which is about the mansion story, in which you just posted. Twice.

[JohnBrown1917]

Why do they always need to lie when its already out in the open how much Pelosi is worth?

[GreenJesus]

That's just a stupid thing to say in a thread which is about the mansion story, in which you just posted. Twice.

Ugh.. you know what I mean.. I didnt hear about it before this thread.

[JohnBrown1917]

It's really disgusting how the media does this now a days. Perfect example is how much misinformation was passed around about Nick Sandman and Kyle Rittenhouse. "Journalists" are the enemy of the people that hide behind "freedom of speech" to keep peddling their lies and lazy reporting which severely damages our country. They need to verify primary sources instead of just linking to secondary sources without doing any research.

Also, everyone knows that she has tens of millions of dollars, so why lie about a house she is buying? Better avenue is tracking when she bought stocks and what legislation/CEO passed by her desk around that time. I wonder what the returns would be if you bought stock in every company Nancy Pelosi invests in the second it becomes public.

Unlike this story, Ritterhouse and Sandman only had misinformation spread about them by far right news outlets. But its positive misinformation, so that makes it okay.

[GreenJesus]

Unlike this story, Ritterhouse and Sandman only had misinformation spread about them by far right news outlets. But its positive misinformation, so that makes it okay.

The outcome of the trials proves you are 100% wrong. Still denying the facts. Sad.

Rittenhouse not guilty and Sandman getting money from multiple leftwing news outlets for fake news.

[Breccia]

I didnt hear about it before this thread.

Did you, you know, what to comment on the story? That is what the thread is about. It is not about Kyle Rittenhouse. You might have picked that up in the 13 minutes from the thread existing and you saying you've never heard the story, to posting in that thread about Kyle Rittenhouse and not the story this thread is about.

By the way, would you care to specifically and directly condemn the people spreading this specific false story? As I now do? I specifically and directly condemn the people who made up this story and the people who spread this story without applying the Sniff Test. "I condemn all false news" is (a) hypocritical from a Trump supporter and (b) off-topic, so please, keep this one on-topic and discuss the story you came to this thread to discuss. And somehow haven't.

[GreenJesus]

Did you, you know, what to comment on the story? That is what the thread is about. It is not about Kyle Rittenhouse. You might have picked that up in the 13 minutes from the thread existing and you saying you've never heard the story, to posting in that thread about Kyle Rittenhouse and not the story this thread is about.

By the way, would you care to specifically and directly condemn the people spreading this specific false story? As I now do? I specifically and directly condemn the people who made up this story and the people who spread this story without applying the Sniff Test. "I condemn all false news" is (a) hypocritical from a Trump supporter and (b) off-topic, so please, keep this one on-topic and discuss the story you came to this thread to discuss. And somehow haven't.

Sure. I condemn any journalist/reporter that lazily just reposts / quotes accusations without doing the research to verify if that includes Washington Examiner or a Fox News contributor.

[Ivanstone]

It's really disgusting how the media does this now a days. Perfect example is how much misinformation was passed around about Nick Sandman and Kyle Rittenhouse. "Journalists" are the enemy of the people that hide behind "freedom of speech" to keep peddling their lies and lazy reporting which severely damages our country. They need to verify primary sources instead of just linking to secondary sources without doing any research.

After public school teacher, journalist is the most important job in any democracy. Yes they have both Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press and both are secured by the First Amendment.

PS Rittenhouse is a vicious little twerp who will likely get in trouble again. The media was wrong about Sandman though. He was wearing a klanhood so its understandable that people might have thought he was a racist when he should've been pilloried for being a misogynist. A retraction was put out a short time later.

When I was Sandman's age I also went to my nation's capitol. Instead of protesting against women's rights like Sandman, my class went to a museum, met our MP and went a baseball game (Expos beat the Reds 4-2).

[draynay]

I've never heard of the mansion story. And the mansion story is fake so whats there to talk about specifically about the mansion?

Then go fuck around in some other thread if you won't post on topic.

[GreenJesus]

Then go fuck around in some other thread if you won't post on topic.

I'm talking about "Journalists" and "investigative reporters" reposting content without verifying the authenticity. That is very on topic considering that is what this thread is about. If you just want your own little bubble to slap each other on the back in then go ahead.

[Machismo]

Are Trumpsters really trying to complain about fake news with a straight face?

[Cthulhu 2020]

It's really disgusting how the media does this now a days. Perfect example is how much misinformation was passed around about Nick Sandman and Kyle Rittenhouse. "Journalists" are the enemy of the people that hide behind "freedom of speech" to keep peddling their lies and lazy reporting which severely damages our country. They need to verify primary sources instead of just linking to secondary sources without doing any research.

Also, everyone knows that she has tens of millions of dollars, so why lie about a house she is buying? Better avenue is tracking when she bought stocks and what legislation/CEO passed by her desk around that time. I wonder what the returns would be if you bought stock in every company Nancy Pelosi invests in the second it becomes public.

Not. All. Media. Is. Right. Wing. Propaganda.

This story isn't even a one-off. This is how Fox News operates mostly these days. Some right wing lunatic creates a twitter post. A small right winger circle jerk site cites this tweet as the source of their information. Fox News picks it up and pushes it out to the masses.

The "lies about Kyle Rittenhouse" is another one of these styles of stories. The alt-right made posts about how Kyle was being lied about, then these tweets were quoted by Fox News and gained momentum. Nothing pushed out of the "mainstream media" about Kyle was lies. It all came from the trial itself. The right was uncomfortable that facts were facts so they began pushing this narrative that it was all fake.

THE RIGHT BEGAN CLAIMING THAT VIDEOS SHOWN IN THE COURT ROOM, EVIDENCE PRESENTED BY THE PROSECUTION THAT THE JUDGE ALLOWED, WERE ALL LIES. And they had ZERO basis to make these claims.

In fact, alt-right judges have begun banning left wing news from entering the court room. And most trials are allowed to have an audience of peers as well as a jury of peers. There's no reason for this. Aside from trials with sensitive information, this is probably illegal. But alt-right judges just don't believe in the first amendment - freedom of the press. All of the news about the trial came from the trial itself. Evidence was presented by CNN and others as it was presented, how it was presented, and how the prosecution, defense, and judge reacted to it.

THAT'S NOT LIES. That's journalism.

And now @GreenJesus has fallen into the alt-right lie machine once more.

[JohnBrown1917]

The outcome of the trials proves you are 100% wrong. Still denying the facts. Sad.

Rittenhouse not guilty and Sandman getting money from multiple leftwing news outlets for fake news.

Strange how they never revealed how much money huh? Not that CNN is anything but left-wing[and pussies for chickening out and settling]
And why would I give a shit about a court case? Is OJ not a murderer now? Have people never been wrongfully convicted? Has nobody ever walked free from a crime they committed?

Oh, and i'm sure that Exon buying a judge to get a human rights lawyer jailed[because he won a case against them] just means the system is flawless.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm talking about "Journalists" and "investigative reporters" reposting content without verifying the authenticity. That is very on topic considering that is what this thread is about. If you just want your own little bubble to slap each other on the back in then go ahead.

And Ritterhouse/Sandman have nothing to do with that.

[postman1782]

The outcome of the trials proves you are 100% wrong. Still denying the facts. Sad.

Rittenhouse not guilty and Sandman getting money from multiple leftwing news outlets for fake news.

Rittenhouse, if he gets anything, will lose it all in the wrongful death lawsuits. But I can pretty much guarantee, if he tries to sue for defamation, he will lose. There is plenty of evidence to show he supports white supremacy.

[Breccia]

I condemn any journalist/reporter

As expected, you refused. Further deflection. I asked you to call out these specific people and you refused.

By the way, here's a bunch of other people calling out the false story.

The Sun-Sentinel

Commenting on the false mansion story.

The conservative blogosphere was buzzing on a report this week claiming that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was purchasing a sprawling, $25 million oceanfront mansion on Jupiter Island. But the claim is “completely false,” a Pelosi spokesperson said Wednesday.

The agent representing the seller of the property at the center of the reports repeated the denial, saying the buyer is not Pelosi nor anyone associated with her.

They were not commenting on "all journalists" They were commenting on the story in the headline.

The Palm Beach Post

"There is zero association between the seller of the home, the buyer of the home and Nancy Pelosi," said Rob Thomson, owner of Waterfront Properties.

Thomson should know. He represents the unnamed buyer of the mansion in question.

The buyer of the house is an existing resident of the Admirals Cove community in Jupiter, Thomson said.

They were talking about the story in the headline. They were not talking about all journalists.

Realtor.com

“I have no idea where the rumor started in regards to Nancy Pelosi,” says the listing agent, Beth Bourque with Southern Shore Properties, who has been swamped with calls for the last week asking about the supposed Pelosi purchase.

“I keep saying I can’t disclose who the buyer is, but it’s not Pelosi,” she says.

The new owners are just as displeased by the unwelcome fuss about their newly purchased home.

“They definitely don’t want the rumors out there,” Bourque says. “They don’t want that sort of attention.”

They were talking about the story specifically called out, and the house and its property. They were not talking about all journalists.

Incidentally, if any of this sounds familiar, it's because it's happened before. In February it was San Fransisco. Yes, it was false then, too.

So drop the deflection, drop the "very fine people on all sides", stop going off-topic about Rittenhouse and discuss the story in question. Please post constructively.

[Cthulhu 2020]

As expected, you refused. Further deflection. I asked you to call out these specific people and you refused.

That and "The media lied about Kyle Rittenhouse" is just another example of right wing media lies that originate on social media.