Fake News: Grandparents Did NOT Sue Hypnotherapist After He Failed to Turn Grandson Heterosexual

Fact Check

  • by: Maarten Schenk
Fake News: Grandparents Did NOT Sue Hypnotherapist After He Failed to Turn Grandson Heterosexual

Did Jason and Judith Gilmour of Jackson, Mississippi sue hypnotherapist Mohammed Ben Salam after he failed to turn their gay grandson into a heterosexual? No, that's not true: the story was made up by a website that habitually fabricates tales about bizarre crimes and weird sex acts, all for entertainment purposes. It is not real.

The story originated from an article published by World News Daily Report on August 30, 2018 titled "Grandparents sue hypnotherapist after he failed to turn their grandson into a heterosexual" (archived here) which opened:

Jackson, MS | Grandparents of a Mississippi teenager are suing a hypnotherapist for $200,000 after he promised them he could turn their homosexual grandson into a heterosexual.

Over a period of 18 months, Jason Gilmour, 67, and his wife Judith Gilmour, 64, sent their 14-year-old grandson to hypnotherapy sessions an average of three times per week.

The couple allegedly paid over $100,000 in hypnotherapy sessions and claim that Dr. Mohammed Ben Salam told them there was progress when there was none.

Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail so it looked like a legitimate news website to some:

Grandparents sue hypnotherapist after he failed to turn their grandson into a heterosexual

Jackson, MS | Grandparents of a Mississippi teenager are suing a hypnotherapist for $200,000 after he promised them he could turn their homosexual grandson into a heterosexual. Over a period of 18 months, Jason Gilmour, 67, and his wife Judith Gilmour, 64, sent their 14-year-old grandson to hypnoth

The "grandparents" in the picture are actually Mark and Christina Rotondo, a couple who sued their 30-year-old son because he wouldn't move out of their house.

Parents sue after 30-year-old son refuses to move out

A 30-year-old man was ordered to vacate his parent's Syracuse-area home Tuesday after they sued him because he refused to leave. After the ruling by State Supreme Court Justice Donald Greenwood, son Michael Rotondo said, "This is outrageous" and said he would appeal the decision.

We don't know who the person on the left is but we suspect it is a young Justin Bieber. In any case, he is definitely not the grandson of people from Jackson who tried to turn him straight through hypnosis.

That's because the website World News Daily Report is a well known satire website specialized in posting hoaxes and made up stories. The disclaimer on their website is pretty clear about that even though you have to scroll all the way down the page to find it:

World News Daily Report assumes all responsibility for the satirical nature of its articles and for the fictional nature of their content. All characters appearing in the articles in this website - even those based on real people - are entirely fictional and any resemblance between them and any person, living, dead or undead, is purely a miracle.

It is run by Janick Murray-Hall and Olivier Legault, who also run the satirical Journal de Mourréal, a satirical site spoofing the (real) Journal de Montéal. Very often their stories feature an image showing a random crazy mugshot found in a mugshot gallery on the internet or on a stock photo website superimposed over a background of flashing police lights or crime scene tape.

Articles from the site are frequently copied (sometimes even months or years later) by varous fake news websites that omit the satire disclaimer and present the information as real.

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

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  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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