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Write about false news coverage of an important event.

Posted in Nonfiction on Nov 1, 2022

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✍️ 16 stories

Energy Crisis 2023

Submitted to Contest #156

Summer Bummer: Pyrotechnics delayed at 247th annual Fourth-of-Palooza July 3. Gregory Balkema, 28, lost his life this afternoon stunt-driving for South Haven’s most patriotic event of the year. Fourth-of-Palooza, which normally features two nights of fireworks, experimented this year with the addition of jet-propelled truck racing. Balkema drove his stunt truck “right into a fireball of gasoline, on purpose,” according to South Haven native Brendan Kowalski, 59. Kowalski added, “I guess they ran out of fuel after that because they cance...

34 likes 26 comments 26
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Don't Kill Me With Kindness

Submitted to Contest #156

Hiding beneath the floor of my own home, I turn on my phone and see the smiling face of a murderous tyrant. His image shrinks to fit into the corner of the screen as the news begins.             “Welcome to Freedom Press 24, your only twenty-four-hour news channel, bringing you the truth, all day, every day.” The president’s face still smiles in the corner of the screen. There were dozens of round-the-clock channels until he came to power.        &...

19 likes 9 comments 9
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A Fiery Tale

Submitted to Contest #156

“They who control the narrative, control the way forward.” The Movement for Social Coercion   “Camera Three, I need a close-up on the man with the horns,” demanded the Location Director from her mobile news van as she spoke through her headset. “That’s it! Get him in mid roar… beautiful! That’s our money shot.”Carol Vidmark intensely studied the six or so monitors all lit up in the back of her privately funded news van. Commanding a team of five vloggers – all broadcasting live feeds from their smartphones in the most extraordinary dome...

18 likes 18 comments 18
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Anatomy of a Conspiracy Theory

Submitted to Contest #156

It was just supposed to be a joke. Well, I guess the joke’s on me because I am the one sitting in a jail cell waiting to be picked up for my arraignment. They’re keeping me in a holding cell, so it’s private, but the  toilet is right out in the open and guards keep walking back and forth. I have a shy bladder and can’t pee if people are watching. I wonder if anyone has ever died from a burst bladder. I really want to google it, but they took my phone. I’ve been charged with six counts of involuntary manslaughter and libel against...

15 likes 13 comments 13
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Fake News

Submitted to Contest #156

I don’t know… Sometimes, I think that the more society progresses, the further behind we actually retreat. We have so much information at our fingertips, and we have become dumber for it. Growing up in the seventies and eighties, I remember that if I needed to know something for school or whatever, I would refer to the Encyclopedia Britannica or a similar publication to get the answers… the facts. Now, I type a question into my browser or just press the mike button on my phone and within a few seconds am presented with a huge amount of ...

12 likes 4 comments 4
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Confession

Submitted to Contest #156

I was hallucinating. That’s the only logical explanation for what I was seeing on the streets. Two dead bodies, one male and one female, laying in front of me, their throats slit and their eyes still wide open in fear. Where am I, anyway? My mind was a fuzzy mess of unclear thoughts and muddy memories, and it was so hard to sort through them. There was a gaping hole in it – I went to work. I came back. I found my friend, Sarah, at my house. She was holding a Ziploc bag full of a white powder. Going to the Royal Oak. Inhaling the powder w...

11 likes 0 comments 0
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Spring Break-Out

Submitted to Contest #156

I read the words as big as life on the front page of my college magazine and sank back into my khaki green hammock: Spring Break-out Goes Paige Perfect.Oh God! No!It was anything but perfect. My roommate, Valerie, had left me with the chore of watching lab rats for the week while everyone else seemed to be on their way to Cancun for spring break. The job would be simple, she'd assured me, but she had lied."All you have to do is feed them a cube of "Magic.""What's 'Magic'?" I asked."It's a little treat that helps calm them so they don't go nu...

10 likes 1 comment 1
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Out of Print

Submitted to Contest #156

Out of PrintHe was an unobtrusive character, one you wouldn’t look at twice if you passed him in the street.Drab and mousy, outfitted in neutral tones, he was just a wisp of a fellow. You might describe him as shadowy, furtive, ephemeral. His tweed overcoat, an odd blend of tan and grey, lent him the illusion of bulk. Where its collar — turned up at the back of his neck against the wind — met the back of his moleskin cap, there was a suggestion of almost colorless hair.Though young, he had an appearance at once world-weary and otherworl...

9 likes 8 comments 8
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Comet Pizza

Submitted to Contest #156

Mentions of drugs, kidnapping, sexual violence/trafficking Comet Pizza Word Count: 2218 “My sister’s name is Charlotte. She loves pizza, crop tops, and she has blonde hair. She’s out there somewhere, so please–if you see something, anything, please let us know. I just want my sister back.”      Charlotte went to Comet Pizza with three of her friends Friday night. That was two days ago. And she hasn’t come back.      It wasn’t like going to Comet was out of the ordinary. It was a regular thing–she and h...

9 likes 0 comments 0
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Earth Day

Submitted to Contest #156

Year, 2070 I stared at the ceiling as I lay in bed. Dread and anxiety had my heart pounding against my chest. It was 7:00 am Monday morning and today was the day the truth would finally come out. “What are the people going to say now? Now that proof of our worst fears is overwhelmingly evident. Will they finally demand action? Will there be war over which solutions to implement? Hell, with how bad things got why not go through them all. Any one of these solutions might bring us back from a mass extinction.” I pondered over reactions and nex...

8 likes 1 comment 1
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The Man Who Would be President...Again

Submitted to Contest #156

"What the hell's going on this morning?" asked Jerry Bland. "Don't they know who they are delaying?" Paul Butler looked up from his cell phone and noticed the big car he and his boss occupied had stopped. He could not see exactly what was going on, but hoped it would be quickly resolved. Jerry Bland had little patience and Butler did not feel like listening to his whining complaints this morning. They hadn't even reached the highway yet. Stuck in the suburbs. Just great. Butler looked around, hoping he might spot a route around the traffic...

8 likes 0 comments 0
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The Orpheum

Submitted to Contest #156

(story contains salty language) Perfunctory meals. Astronaut food. Bright lights. Loud music. Tables jammed together so close the neighboring conversations sat in the back of their throats.“Why do we torture ourselves?” Davis asked.“Well, what do you want to do?” Kate replied.“Let’s head to the Orpheum.”“Now? I thought Drew said not to until later.”“Drew says a lot of shit.”“Well, this seemed important.”“Yeah, it is. It is. But this,” Davis held up a blanched, undercooked asparagus stem that bent at the wai...

8 likes 3 comments 3
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A Mystery Best Left Unsolved

Submitted to Contest #156

  Wreck of the Malaysia   Airlines Flight MH370 Discovered  "Shall we try and pursue the parties responsible for this? I can't even say that we truly desire to do so given what we now know."   -- Anonymous Aeronautical Expert  August 14, 2026. 9:30 PM EST. Updated: November 1, 2026. 3:19 EST.  By Samuel K. Morrison  A mixture of pride, fear and relief dominated the air as the last of the debris was finally hauled out of the ocean. The crew tasked with extracting the inf...

7 likes 1 comment 1
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No Fear

Submitted to Contest #156

The cemetery beckoned Deborah’s mother every year about this time, but Deborah didn’t know why. She suspected, but her mother wouldn’t tell her.“It’s enough that you know your nanny rests in peace here,” is all she would say, “until the right time comes to tell you.”Deborah reminisced. Her beloved grandmother was so intelligent, so beautiful, and so kind. She wouldn’t have hurt a fly.The weather was cold even in the noonday sun, and Deborah wondered why they couldn’t come to the cemetery in the summer when it was warmer. Her mother placed so...

7 likes 1 comment 1
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False News Coverage About Trump In 2016

Submitted to Contest #156

Fake news is not a new phenomenon, and it has been around since news became a concept 500 years ago with the invention of print—much longer than verified, "objective" news, which emerged in force more than a century ago. This type of misinformation has existed for many years, and it is also sensationalist and designed to inflame passions and provoke violence.  On Easter Sunday, 1475, a two ½-year-old child went missing in Trent, Italy. In a series of sermons, Franciscan preacher Bernardina da Feltre claimed that the Jewish community had...

6 likes 2 comments 2
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