TruNews

Last updated

TruNews
TruNews logo.svg
Type of site
Available inEnglish
Owner Rick Wiles
URL trunews.com
RegistrationNone
LaunchedSeptember 1998;26 years ago (1998-09) [3]
Current statusActive

TruNews is an American far-right [2] fake news website [1] and channel owned and hosted by Rick Wiles. TruNews frequently publishes conspiracy theories [12] [13] [14] in addition to racist, anti-LGBT, antisemitic, and Islamophobic content. [11] It has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. [15]

Contents

History

Wiles founded the organization as America's Hope in September 1998 as a Christian ministry based in the Dallas–Fort Worth area. In the following months, Wiles toured the U.S. speaking of moral decline as he aimed to prevent "economic collapse" and "war on American soil". On May 24, 1999, the organization made its first radio broadcast. After five years of regular broadcasts, the news station briefly changed its name to America Freedom News, before settling on TruNews in 2004. [3]

In November 2019, TruNews was temporarily suspended from YouTube for violating its rules on promoting hate speech. [16] [17] Wiles has denied his rhetoric has antisemitic intent and blamed George Soros for organizing a campaign against him. [14] In February 2020, TruNews was permanently banned from YouTube. [18]

Content

In October 2014, TruNews urged that the spread of Ebola "could solve America's problems with atheism, homosexuality, sexual promiscuity, pornography and abortion". [19] [20] In late January 2020, Wiles said COVID-19 was God's "death angel" and "plagues are one of the last steps of judgment." [21]

TruNews is known for promoting racist and antisemitic conspiracy theories. The website frequently described President Barack Obama as a "demon from hell". [7] Obama, he claimed while the former president was in office, was the "jihadist-in-chief" who was "waging jihad against the United States from inside the White House" and murdered Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia as a "pagan sacrifice". [22]

In 2017, TruNews guests included someone who claimed President Bill Clinton was a flesh-eating cannibal, leading to his contracting related diseases. [23] Another asserted that Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom was a "lizard person" who had Diana, Princess of Wales murdered because the Princess was in the process of revealing that the Royal Family was involved in Satanism. [24] He also asserted that Israel and the "Jewish mafia" had President John F. Kennedy assassinated. Another edition of Wiles' program claimed Israel and the "synagogue of Satan" are pushing the United States to fight wars on their behalf. [12]

On TruNews, Wiles has asserted that the effects of Hurricane Harvey upon the city of Houston, Texas, in September 2017 resulted from Houston's "LGBT devotion"; [25] [26] has described Judaism and Islam as "the Antichrist"; has called Central American immigrants a "brown invasion" being used by God to punish White Americans for legal abortion; [24] has claimed that the 2017 Las Vegas shooting was conducted by government death squads from a "gay / lesbian Nazi regime"; [7] and, in July 2018, predicted an imminent coup (led by CNN's Anderson Cooper and MSNBC's Rachel Maddow) that would result in the nationally televised decapitation of the Trump family on the White House lawn. [24] [27]

Wiles promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories of Jewish world domination while discussing the 2019 AIPAC conference on TruNews. [28] In November 2019, he said that the congressional hearings concerning the impeachment of Donald Trump were "infested with Jews" and constituted a "Jew coup". [17] He claimed: "That's the way the Jews work. They are deceivers. They plot, they lie, they do whatever they have to do to accomplish their political agenda" and asserted the United States would reach a state of civil war before Christmas. Millions of Christians would be murdered by Jews as a result. [29] Of the hoax Protocols of the Elders of Zion , Wiles said the authors had "accurately predicted what was going to happen in the world". [17] TruNews and Wiles have also claimed that the transgender rights movement is a Zionist plot to make all of humanity androgynous, that this supposed plot was inspired by Talmudic and Kabbalistic doctrines, and that it involves "putting specific things in food, in drink". [30] [18]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">QAnon</span> American conspiracy theory and political movement

QAnon is a far-right American political conspiracy theory and political movement that originated in 2017. QAnon centers on fabricated claims made by an anonymous individual or individuals known as "Q". Those claims have been relayed and developed by online communities and influencers. Their core belief is that a cabal of Satanic, cannibalistic child molesters is operating a global child sex trafficking ring that conspired against President Donald Trump. QAnon has direct roots in Pizzagate, an Internet conspiracy theory that appeared one year earlier, but also incorporates elements of many different conspiracy theories and unifies them into a larger interconnected conspiracy theory. QAnon has been described as a cult.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Joseph Watson</span> English YouTuber, radio host, and conspiracy theorist

Paul Joseph Watson is a far-right British YouTuber, radio host, and conspiracy theorist. Until July 2016, Watson embraced the label "alt-right", but he now identifies as part of the New Right. In May 2019, Facebook and Instagram permanently banned Watson for violation of hate speech policies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Enoch</span> American white supremacist blogger and podcast host (born 1977)

Michael Enoch Isaac Peinovich, more commonly known as Mike Enoch, is an American neo-Nazi, antisemitic conspiracy theorist, Holocaust denier, blogger, and podcast host. He founded the alt-right media network The Right Stuff and podcast The Daily Shoah. Through his work, Enoch ridicules African Americans, Jews, and other minorities, advocates racial discrimination, and promotes conspiracy theories such as Holocaust denial and white genocide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Posobiec</span> American conservative commentator and conspiracy theorist

Jack Michael Posobiec III is an American alt-right political activist, television correspondent and presenter, conspiracy theorist, and former United States Navy intelligence officer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Candace Owens</span> American conservative political commentator (born 1989)

Candace Amber Owens Farmer is an American political commentator and pundit. She is mostly described as conservative or far-right.

Rick Wiles is a far-right American conspiracy theorist, pundit, and Christian fundamentalist senior pastor at the non-denominational Flowing Streams Church. He is the founder of TruNews, a website promoting racist, homophobic, and antisemitic conspiracy theories.

YouTube may suspend accounts, temporarily or permanently, from their social networking service. Suspensions of high-profile individuals from YouTube are unusual and when they occur, often attract attention in the media.

The Richie Allen Show is a UK-based digital radio show and podcast hosted by Irish radio broadcaster and journalist Richie Allen, and broadcast from Salford, Greater Manchester. The show started in September 2014 and up until its temporary hiatus in October 2024 was broadcast four days a week: Monday to Thursday.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Soros conspiracy theories</span>

Hungarian-American billionaire businessman and philanthropist George Soros's philanthropy and support for progressive causes has made him the subject of many conspiracy theories, most of them originating from the political right. Veronika Bondarenko, writing for Business Insider said: "For two decades, some have seen Soros as a kind of puppet master secretly controlling the global economy and politics." The New York Times describes the allegations as moving "from the dark corners of the internet and talk radio" to "the very center of the political debate" by 2018. Professor Armin Langer has noted that Soros is "the perfect code word" for conspiracy theories that unite antisemitism and Islamophobia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nick Fuentes</span> American far-right political commentator

Nicholas Joseph Fuentes is an American far-right political pundit and live streamer who promotes white supremacist, misogynistic, and antisemitic views. His YouTube page was permanently terminated in February 2020 for violating YouTube's hate speech policy. Fuentes has promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories against Jews and called for a "holy war" against them, and has denied the Holocaust. He has been described as a neo-Nazi by various sources. Fuentes identifies as a member of the incel movement, a supporter of authoritarianism, and as an integralist and a Christian nationalist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wendy Rogers (politician)</span> American politician (born 1954)

Wendy Rogers is an American far-right politician of the Republican Party. First elected in 2020, she is the Arizona State Senator representing Legislative District 7.

Lauren Elena Witzke is an American far-right political activist known for her anti-LGBT views and promotion of QAnon. Witzke was the Republican nominee in the 2020 United States Senate election in Delaware, which she lost to incumbent Democrat Chris Coons. She is a former TV show host for TruNews.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert David Steele</span> American CIA officer and conspiracy theorist (1952–2021)

Robert David Steele was an American case officer for the Central Intelligence Agency, co-founder of the United States Marine Corps Intelligence Activity and conspiracy theorist.

Stewart Peters is an American alt-right internet personality, white nationalist, political commentator, Holocaust denier, and conspiracy theorist. He is known for promoting COVID-19 misinformation and conspiracy theories, as well as anti-LGBTQ, antisemitic, and white supremacist beliefs.

The ReAwaken America Tour is an American far-right and Christian nationalist movement launched in 2021 by Oklahoma entrepreneur Clay Clark and former Donald Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn. Its rallies have promoted a variety of right-wing and far-right conspiracy theories, including COVID-19 misinformation, election denialism, QAnon and doomsday prophecies.

In the United States, the populist Great Replacement conspiracy theory holds the view that "political elites" are purposefully seeking to increase the number of racial and religious minorities in an attempt to displace the Christian white American population. Believers in the conspiracy theory have used it as a racist trope in an attempt to advocate anti-immigration policies and dogwhistle to xenophobic ideology. The theory has received strong support in many sectors of the Republican Party. According to David Smith, "Two in three Republicans agree with the 'great replacement' theory." As a result, it has become a major issue of political debate. It has also stimulated violent reactionary responses, including mass murders. Research published in 2024 found that people who endorse the Great Replacement conspiracy theory tend to have anti-social personality traits, authoritarian views, and negative attitudes toward immigrants, minorities, and women. The name is derived from the "Great Replacement" theory, invented in 2011 by the French author Renaud Camus; it is promoted in Europe, and it also has some similarities to the white genocide conspiracy theory, popularized by the American terrorist David Lane in his 1995 White Genocide Manifesto.

Zionist antisemitism or antisemitic Zionism refers to a phenomenon in which antisemites express support for Zionism and the State of Israel. In some cases, this support may be promoted for explicitly antisemitic reasons. Historically, this type of antisemitism has been most notable among Christian Zionists, who may perpetrate religious antisemitism while being outspoken in their support for Jewish sovereignty in Israel due to their interpretation of Christian eschatology. Similarly, people who identify with the political far-right, particularly in Europe and the United States, may support the Zionist movement because they seek to expel Jews from their country and see Zionism as the least complicated method of achieving this goal and satisfying their racial antisemitism.

<i>Died Suddenly</i> 2022 anti-vaccination propaganda film

Died Suddenly is a 2022 American anti-vaccination film directed by Matthew Skow and executive-produced by Stew Peters, a far-right and alt-right anti-vaccine activist. It promotes false claims about COVID-19 vaccines and Great Reset conspiracy theories. The film was released on Rumble and Twitter on November 21, 2022.

References

  1. 1 2 Sources describing TruNews as a fake news website: [8] [9] [10] [11]
  2. 1 2 Sources describing TruNews as far-right: [4] [5] [6] [7]
  3. 1 2 "About TruNews". TruNews. Archived from the original on May 14, 2019. Retrieved June 28, 2019.
  4. ↑ Tebaldi, Catherine (May 27, 2021). "Speaking post-truth to power" (PDF). Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies. 43 (3). Routledge: 9. doi:10.1080/10714413.2020.1729679. ISSN   1071-4413 – via ORBilu. Even more shockingly, perhaps is the headline from the far-right news source TruNews, "Rick Wiles: Liberals Intend to Put Conservatives in Concentration Camps." For the far right, schools are not just sites of liberal hegemony but indoctrination centers, camps, cultural marxist madrassas.
  5. ↑ Brown, Jeremy (July 7, 2022). "A Plague of Biblical Proportions: Jews and Judaism in the Age of COVID-19" . The Eleventh Plague: Jews and Pandemics from the Bible to COVID-19 . Oxford University Press. p. 315. doi:10.1093/oso/9780197607183.003.0014. ISBN   978-0-19-760718-3 . Retrieved January 13, 2024– via Google Books. For American Jews, there was a locally grown accusation. It was made by Rick Wiles, the Florida-based founder and host of the far-right Christian channel called TruNews. Wiles blamed Judaism for the spread of coronavirus: "There is a plague moving upon the Earth right now, and the people that are going into the synagogues are coming out with the virus. You are under judgment because you oppose his son, Jesus Christ. That is why you have a plague in your synagogues." For good measure, Wiles also claimed that COVID-19 outbreak in the United States was started at the AIPAC conference.
  6. ↑ Chen, Yingying; Long, Jacob; Jun, Jungmi; Kim, Sei-Hill; Zain, Ali; Piacentine, Colin (January 30, 2023). "Anti-intellectualism amid the COVID-19 pandemic: The discursive elements and sources of anti-Fauci tweets". Public Understanding of Science . 32 (5). Sage: 641–657. doi:10.1177/09636625221146269. ISSN   0963-6625. PMC   9892881 . PMID   36715354. These include three far-right alternative news media with questionable credibility (The Colorado Herald, TruNews, and The Western Journal)...
  7. 1 2 3 Thebault, Reis (March 29, 2019). "News outlet that covered 'lizard people' and called Obama a demon just interviewed Trump Jr". The Washington Post . Retrieved November 27, 2019. The TruNews archive reads like a greatest hits collection of far-right conspiracy theories, a veritable potpourri of Nazi references and fear mongering about secret cabals.
  8. ↑ Billard, Thomas J; Moran, Rachel E. (March 16, 2023). "Designing Trust: Design Style, Political Ideology, and Trust in "Fake" News Websites". Digital Journalism . 11 (3). Routledge: 519–546. doi:10.1080/21670811.2022.2087098. ISSN   2167-0811 . Retrieved January 12, 2024– via ResearchGate. Another such case was fake news website TruNews, which presented several stylistic features associated with the genre of "broadcast news outlet."
  9. ↑ Grinberg, Nir; Joseph, Kenneth; Friedland, Lisa; Swire-Thompson, Briony; Lazer, David (January 25, 2019). "Fake news on Twitter during the 2016 U.S. presidential election" (PDF). Science . 363 (6425). American Association for the Advancement of Science: 374–378. Bibcode:2019Sci...363..374G. doi:10.1126/science.aau2706. ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   30679368. S2CID   59248491.
  10. ↑ Guess, Andy; Aslett, Kevin; Tucker, Joshua; Bonneau, Richard; Nagler, Jonathan (2021). "Cracking Open the News Feed: Exploring What U.S. Facebook Users See and Share with Large-Scale Platform Data". Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media. 1. doi: 10.51685/jqd.2021.006 . ISSN   2673-8813. S2CID   236598470.
  11. 1 2 Puente, David (June 1, 2021). "I giornalisti NoVax di TruNews ricoverati per Covid19. Il conduttore Rick Wiles si definiva un sopravvissuto del «genocidio vaccinale»" [TruNews NoVax journalists hospitalized for Covid19. Host Rick Wiles called himself a survivor of the "vaccine genocide"]. Open (in Italian). Retrieved January 13, 2024. TruNews è un canale televisivo online americano basato sulle notizie false e le teorie del complotto, ma non solo: tra i contenuti pubblicati troviamo omofobia, odio razziale e religioso, incluso l'antisemitismo. Il suo fondatore e proprietario, il pastore cristiano Rick Wiles, ha sostenuto la tesi degli Stati Uniti controllati da un gruppo di sionisti satanisti e le teorie del complotto sulla Covid19, soprattutto quelle NoVax, un'accozzaglia di contenuti comuni alla narrativa QAnon.[TruNews is an American online TV channel based on fake news and conspiracy theories, but not only that: among its published content we find homophobia, racial and religious hatred, including anti-Semitism. Its founder and owner, Christian pastor Rick Wiles, has supported the thesis of the U.S. being controlled by a group of Satanist Zionists and conspiracy theories on COVID-19, especially the NoVax ones, a hodgepodge of content common to the QAnon narrative.]
  12. 1 2 "TruNews and Rick Wiles: 'End Times' Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism". Anti-Defamation League. January 13, 2020. Retrieved February 7, 2020. TruNews is a fundamentalist Christian streaming news and opinion platform that has increasingly featured anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist content, and also has a long record of disseminating radical Islamophobic and anti-LGBTQ messages.
  13. ↑ Sravasti Dasgupta (October 21, 2021). "Right-wing radio host says Covid vaccines hatch eggs that grow into synthetic parasites within body as part of coup d'etat by 'evil cabal'". The Independent . Retrieved July 9, 2023. Mr Wiles has used the TruNews platform to peddle conspiracy theories and push racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic content.
  14. 1 2 Michael M. Grynbaum (January 26, 2020). "Site That Ran Anti-Semitic Remarks Got Passes for Trump Trip". New York Times . Retrieved July 9, 2023. TruNews, which Mr. Wiles founded as an online radio program in 1999 called America's Hope, has a history of spreading conspiracy theories and proclaiming an imminent apocalypse. I
  15. ↑ "Hate Map".
  16. ↑ Rudoren, Jodi (November 27, 2019). "Far-Right Pastor Calls Impeachment A 'Jew Coup,' Begs Trump To 'Wake Up'". Forward. Retrieved November 27, 2019.
  17. 1 2 3 MacGuill, Dan (November 27, 2019). "Did Pastor Rick Wiles Call Trump Impeachment a 'Jew Coup'?". Snopes. Retrieved December 9, 2019.
  18. 1 2 Slisco, Aila (February 20, 2020). "YouTube Bans Anti-Semitic Channel TruNews After Founder Calls Trump Impeachment 'Jew Coup'". Newsweek. Retrieved February 21, 2020.
  19. ↑ Martinez, Michael (October 18, 2014). "What's more disturbing than Ebola? The outrageous commentary". CNN. Retrieved November 27, 2019.
  20. ↑ Stein, Nat (October 16, 2014). "Statetap: Evangelicals for Ebola; Snoop Dogg for Dunafon". The Colorado Independent. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  21. ↑ Lemon, Jason (January 28, 2020). "Christian Pastor Claims Coronavirus is God's 'Death Angel,' Blames Parent's 'Transgendering Little Children'". Newsweek. Retrieved February 7, 2020.
  22. ↑ Malaea, Marika (November 18, 2019). "Florida Pastor Rick Wiles Claims Barack Obama is Anonymous Author of 'A Warning'". Newsweek. Retrieved November 27, 2019.
  23. ↑ Mantyla, Kyle (May 8, 2017). "Just Another Day On Trunews: Queen Elizabeth Is A Satanist Lizard And Bill Clinton Is A Cannibal". Right Wing Watch. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  24. 1 2 3 Elfrink, Tim (September 27, 2018). "Trump Takes Question From Racist, Homophobic Florida Conspiracy Website". Miami New Times . Retrieved November 27, 2019.
  25. ↑ Pasha-Robinson, Lucy (September 6, 2017). "Gay people to blame for Hurricane Harvey, say evangelical Christian leaders". The Independent. London. Retrieved November 27, 2019.
  26. ↑ Mantyla, Kyle (August 30, 2017). "Rick Wiles: Hurricane Harvey Is Punishment For Houston's 'Affinity For The Sexual Perversion Movement'". Right Wing Watch . Retrieved January 13, 2024.
  27. ↑ Williams, James (July 23, 2018). "Florida Talk Show Host Rick Wiles 'We Are 72 Hours Away From An Attack On The White House.'". News Talk Florida. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
  28. ↑ Jensen, Tasia (March 28, 2019). "Far-Right Show TruNews Fearmongers: You're Going to See 'Christianity Become Criminalized'". Daily Beast . Retrieved April 5, 2019.
  29. ↑ "'There Will Be a Purge:' U.S. Pastor Warns of 'Jew Coup' to Impeach Trump". Haaretz. November 27, 2019. Retrieved November 27, 2019.
  30. ↑ Mantyla, Kyle (February 14, 2020). "TruNews: Zionism Is Using the Transgender Rights Movement to Make All of Humanity Androgynous". Right Wing Watch.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.