Fake News: Fort Riley, Fort Hood, And Fort Stewart NOT To Start Mobilizing Armor Units To The Border Of Iran

Fact Check

  • by: Alan Duke
Fake News: Fort Riley, Fort Hood, And Fort Stewart NOT To Start Mobilizing Armor Units To The Border Of Iran

Are armor units at Fort Riley, Fort Hood, and Fort Stewart starting to mobilize to the border of Iran? No, that's not true: The claim was posted by a prank site that allows anyone to create a fake story. It is not true.

The story originated from an article published by Channel45News.com on January 6, 2020 titled "Fort Riley, Fort hood, and Fort Stewart to start mobilizing armor units to the border of Iran!" (archived here) which opened:

In wake of rising tensions in the Middle East, all Armor units from these three Army bases are set to be deploying in preparation for what could end up being world war 3!

Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:

Fort Riley, Fort hood, and Fort Stewart to start mobilizing armor units to the border of Iran! - Channel 45 News

In wake of rising tensions in the Middle East, all Armor units from these three Army bases are set to be deploying in preparation for what could end up being world war 3!

The site is part of a network of prank sites operated by Korry Scherer from Milwaukee, WI. according to WHOIS data. The site lets visitors create their own realistic looking fake news stories to prank friends and family.

pranked.jpg

The site seems to be part of a network of similar sites. So far we've found these, but there may be others:

  • channel22news.com
  • channel23news.com
  • channel24news.com
  • channel28news.com
  • channel33news.com
  • channel34news.com
  • channel40news.com
  • channel45news.com
  • channel46news.com

The sites all come with disclaimers at the bottom of each prank:

We do NOT support FAKE NEWS!!! This is a Prank website that is intended for Fun. Bullying, Violent Threats or posts that Violate Public Order are NOT permitted on this Website.

NewsGuard, a company that uses trained journalist to rank the reliability of websites, describes channel45news.com as:

A website that lets users make up stories and headlines that mimic real news and share them on social media.

According to NewsGuard the site does not maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability. Read their full assessment here.

We wrote about channel45news.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:

Want to inform others about the accuracy of this story?

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


  Alan Duke

Editor-in-Chief Alan Duke co-founded Lead Stories after ending a 26-year career with CNN, where he mainly covered entertainment, current affairs and politics. Duke closely covered domestic terrorism cases for CNN, including the Oklahoma City federal building bombing, the UNABOMBER and search for Southeast bomber Eric Robert Rudolph. CNN moved Duke to Los Angeles in 2009 to cover the entertainment beat. Duke also co-hosted a daily podcast with former HLN host Nancy Grace, "Crime Stories with Nancy Grace" and hosted the podcast series "Stan Lee's World: His Real Life Battle with Heroes & Villains." You'll also see Duke in many news documentaries, including on the Reelz channel, CNN and HLN.

Read more about or contact Alan Duke

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