Fake News: Sean Connery NOT Dead, NOT Trump Supporter And Friend

Fact Check

  • by: Maarten Schenk
Fake News: Sean Connery NOT Dead, NOT Trump Supporter And Friend

Did actor Sean Connery die and was he a lifelong Trump supporter and friend? No, that's total nonsense: the death hoax was published by a liberal website that posts fake news with satire disclaimers and hopes less intellectually gifted Trump supporters and conservatives will then like and share it so fans of the site can then mock them for it. Connery is still alive, the entire story is not true.

It originated from an article published by America's Last Line of Defense (now using the domain trumpbetrayed.us) on September 1, 2018 titled "Sir Timothy Sean Connery - 1921-2018 - A Trump Supporter And A Friend" (archived here) which opened:

Sir Timothy Sean Connery, known as just Sean Connery to billions of fans around the world, has died at the age of 92. Connery, who was an avid Trump supporter, fell asleep peacefully in a Barcalounger by his pool and never woke up. The Medical Examiner said he just...died.

Connery, best known for his numerous depictions of 007 James Bond, is well-known for working phone banks on election night and helping get President Trump elected. The President once called him "An American Hero' and gave him the Citizen's Meritorious Medal of Achievement, the first time it was given to someone without US citizenship.

The "Citizen's Meritorious Medal of Achievement" does not actually exists as far as we've been able to determine.

Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail, making it look like a real obituary:

Sir Timothy Sean Connery - 1921-2018 - A Trump Supporter And A Friend

Goodbye to a legend who had hope for a bright Trump future.

However no other websites carry the news and the site comes with a clear satire disclaimer at the bottom of each article:

sat·ire ~ˈsaˌtī(ə)r
noun
the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, OR ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
If you disagree with the definition of satire or have decided it is synonymous with "comedy," you should really just move along.

The owner and main writer of the site is self-professed liberal troll Christopher Blair, a man from Maine who has made it his full time job to troll gullible conservatives and Trump supporters into liking and sharing his articles. He runs several other websites, including potatriotpost.us, dailyworldupdate.us and nofakenewsonline.us. Sometimes he is also known under his nickname "Busta Troll". A second man working on the sites is John Prager as revealed in this earlier story we wrote.

Articles from Blair's sites frequently get copied by "real" fake news sites who often omit the satire disclaimer and any other hints the stories are fake. Blair has tried to get these sites shut down in the past but new ones keep cropping up and he keeps knocking them down.

If you see one of his stories on a site that does not contain a satire disclaimer, assume it is fake news. If you do see the satire disclaimer it is of course also fake news.

We wrote about trumpbetrayed.us before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:

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See who is sharing it (it might even be your friends...) and leave the link in the comments.:


  Maarten Schenk

Lead Stories co-founder Maarten Schenk is our resident expert on fake news and hoax websites. He likes to go beyond just debunking trending fake news stories and is endlessly fascinated by the dazzling variety of psychological and technical tricks used by the people and networks who intentionally spread made-up things on the internet.  He can often be found at conferences and events about fake news, disinformation and fact checking when he is not in his office in Belgium monitoring and tracking the latest fake article to go viral.

Read more about or contact Maarten Schenk

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