Most miners made barely enough to get by during the California Gold Rush. Some were convinced that getting rich in California was all just a wicked hoax played on them. The California Gold Rush did see people get rich overnight. And no, that wasn't a hoax at all. But it wasn't the miners who got rich. In fact, those who ended up getting rich at the time were the people who supplied the miners with food, clothing, shovels, and everything else miners needed to get by during their search for those elusive nuggets.
Like today, there have been small hoaxes and large hoaxes, famous hoaxes and not-so-famous hoaxes. As I was saying in my long six-part series on Was The Capt. Jonathan R. Davis 1854 Gunfight A Hoax? -- Part Four, back in the 1800s, hoaxes were very commonplace. Of course, though that was the case, hoaxes in newspapers didn't stop after 1900. In fact, just as what's taking place today with the Left's money-making Climate Change Hoax, and people trying to make rapists and murderers look like misunderstood victims to sell newspapers, fraud and people perpetrating such things seem eternal.
A hoax that caught a lot of people off guard took place in 1931 in Dallas, Texas. The initial story of what supposedly took place was big enough. But then, when the fraudster came clean and owned up to the hoax that he tried to pull, well, that really made bigger news.
The initial story was about how four men attempted to lynch a 30-year-old Baptist Minister by hanging him from a chandelier directly over the pulpit where he stood each Sunday morning. The story had people wanting to know what sort of degenerate would lynch a preacher right over the very spot where he preached the gospel on Sundays. The preacher was Rev. B. P. Brown. He was an assistant pastor at the North Dallas Baptist Church. And yes, it was all a fraud created by him.
TEXAS PASTOR SAYS HANGING STORY A HOAX
Rev. Brown Confesses That He Lost Nerve In Attempt To Commit Suicide
DALLAS, Texas, June 20, 1931, (UPI) The story of how four men attempted to lynch a 30-year-old Baptist Minister by hanging him from a chandelier directly over the pulpit where he stood each Sunday morning was a hoax, the preacher confessed today. The Rev. B. P. Brown, supply pastor at the North Dallas Baptist Church, hanged himself in an attempt to commit suicide, but lost his nerve and then concocted the story of the lynching. A mental disorder brought on when he was slugged in the head early this year at Midland, Texas, was blamed for his actions.
Brown was beaten by burglars when he discovered them rifling a safe at the hotel where he was working at the time. He then came to Dallas, entered the ministry, and supported himself by working as a baggage clerk in the Adolphus Hotel. Brown confessed that his story was a hoax before his whole congregation, assembled for a revival meeting. He told of the elaborate plan he made to hang himself.
He looped the rope over the chandelier, placed the loop around his neck, and climbed on a chair, he said. Then, he kicked the chair away and was suspended in mid-air, slowly choking to death. That's when Brown changed his mind and finally freed himself from the knotted rope.
He gave no reason for his action. The "crime" had puzzled Dallas Police ever since Brown was found in the church early Thursday. The "lynching" was first believed to be the result of hatred held for Brown by various members of his church.
Even the Ku Klux Klan entered the case. It was reported that the Klan, once strong in the area, had attempted to punish the minister for Communist leanings. The story Brown first told was elaborate. He claimed to have been kidnapped shortly after midnight Thursday while walking home from work. His abductor, he said, took him to his own church, where three other masked men were awaiting him. They first stripped him of his clothing, bound his mouth with tape, and then hanged him, he told police. He said he was able to save himself only because the rope they used was new and stretched, allowing him to reach a nearby chair with the tips of his toes.
Even the Ku Klux Klan entered the case. It was reported that the Klan, once strong in the area, had attempted to punish the minister for Communist leanings. The story Brown first told was elaborate. He claimed to have been kidnapped shortly after midnight Thursday while walking home from work. His abductor, he said, took him to his own church, where three other masked men were awaiting him. They first stripped him of his clothing, bound his mouth with tape, and then hanged him, he told police. He said he was able to save himself only because the rope they used was new and stretched, allowing him to reach a nearby chair with the tips of his toes.
-- end of the 1931 news article.
Before his confession, the newspapers in Texas put the news story on the wire and ran with it. They attributed the preacher's faked hanging to everyone but the preacher himself. With egg on their face, the newspapers that ran with the story never took responsibility for having published a false story. Yes, a story that many kept believing was true. Instead of waiting to ferret out the truth, the newspapers simply ran with it.
While that was in the 1930s, nothing's changed. The news media today wants to be the first to publish a story -- true or not. And no, they don't seem to care if what they are saying is credible or if it's just another lie. They are not held accountable and see themselves above being held to standards of honesty and truthfulness.
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While that was in the 1930s, nothing's changed. The news media today wants to be the first to publish a story -- true or not. And no, they don't seem to care if what they are saying is credible or if it's just another lie. They are not held accountable and see themselves above being held to standards of honesty and truthfulness.
As for running hoaxes, the Mainstream Media outdid themselves when they ran with the Trump-Russia Collusion Hoax story. The false information they spread elevated them to a level of fakeness that will never be matched again in our history. They lied and lied and lied for years. They did so by bringing on so-called "legal experts" and others who pushed that story even though there was not an ounce of truth in it.
After years of hype and distortion, with the Left in America calling for Trump's immediate arrest, Americans were able to read the full 316-page report from Justice Department special counsel John Durham. That report not only debunked the Left's vile assertions that President Trump committed treason, but it indicted some of our country’s leading institutions -- including the FBI.
In fact, the Durham Report said that the FBI should have never launched an investigation into alleged Russian collusion with Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, given the suspicious evidence coming from biased Democratic Party sources. All in all, the FBI appeared to be either duped or was made a tool by members of the Democratic Party trying to smear President Trump in any way they could.
President Trump's vindication was a huge win for him, especially after years of unfair treatment by the FBI, a "weaponized" Department of Justice, and a national press with a lynch mob mentality -- of hang him, then we'll find out what he did wrong. To say it was shameful would be an understatement. But no, even though they were proven wrong and exposed for being the political tool of the Democratic Party, that hasn't stopped the news media from continuing to conduct business as usual -- and still fire off lie after lie to attack President Trump.
The attacks on President Trump from the news media showed them as all too willing to blame President Trump for everything -- just short of the 9-11 attack. The investigation into the "Russia Collusion" hoax affected President Trump’s entire first term. As for the people responsible for the hoax, the news media's complicity in the criminal fraud was brushed aside as Democrats were elated while trying to paint President Trump's first term as "illegitimate."
To many, what was done to President Trump was criminal, and the people who perpetrated that fraud on the American people should be held to account for their actions. Sadly, because those behind the "Russia Collusion" hoax, those who actually orchestrated and coordinated that effort to unseat a sitting American President, are among the most powerful and wealthy Democrats in the United States, they are above the law and will most likely never be brought to justice.
Whether some want to admit it or not, the ill effects of the "Russia Collusion" hoax have taken their toll on our society as a whole. While hoaxes and fraud being played on the people have been around forever, the news media lying and distorting the truth is now why only 3 out of 10 Americans trust the news media today. The biased reporting and obviously unfounded attacks on President Trump has ruined the credibility of the Mainstream News Media.
And yes, while the news media will tell us that it is "essential to maintaining our freedoms," most Americans don't believe it and see their claim as "defenders of Democracy" as their way of trying to justify their criminal behavior. Because their Leftist Political Agenda supersedes their ability to be fair and honest, Americans see the news media today as both horridly unfair and dishonest.
If you think the news media may have learned a lesson from the Trump-Russia Collusion Hoax, they haven't. In fact, they are still doing the same thing by spreading hoax after hoax, lie after lie after lie. For example, take a look at these Trump hoaxes, which were tried and played out by the new media in just the last few months. Since President Trump took office this year, there has been a nonstop deluge of hoaxes and lies from Democrats and their allies in the news media. The news media lies because they know they have followers who will believe anything they say. That's the reason the news media publishes hoaxes, fake information, things that no honest person would think of repeating.
Take a look at these examples of Fake News:
HOAX: Fake News CNN attempted to “fact check” President Trump’s claim that the Biden Administration spent millions on “making mice transgender.”
FACT: After their so-called “fact check” was thoroughly debunked, they were forced to update it in disgrace and admit the claim was, in fact, true.
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FACT: No service members’ names were removed from that section — and Gen. Powell’s name remains among those listed.
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FACT: “There were 55 aviation accidents in the U.S. between Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 21, 2021, and Feb. 17, 2021, compared to 35 during the same period for Trump,” Fox News reported.
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FACT: It was actually the U.S. Secret Service investigating a threat unrelated to immigration.
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FACT: They were referencing an interview in which Musk was clearly referring to the tremendous amount of waste, fraud, and abuse within entitlement programs.
HOAX: The media smeared DOGE as “young, inexperienced engineers” engineering a “government takeover.”
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FACT: In reality, DOGE is led by seasoned industry professionals, including successful CEOs who paused their lives to aid in the effort of streamlining government and holding the bureaucracy accountable.
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FACT: The same “protests” cited by the Fake News were funded and organized by far-left special interest groups.
HOAX: NPR claimed NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore — who were stuck on the International Space Station for more than nine months following problems with their spacecraft — were “not stranded.”
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FACT: NPR itself had described the astronauts as stranded in prior reporting, and only seemed to take issue with the description once President Trump and Elon Musk made it a priority to bring them home.
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FACT: In reality, President Trump was simply moving on from a reporter who was trying to goad the two leaders into division.
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FACT: This lie was immediately shut down by multiple Trump Administration officials, including President Trump himself.
HOAX: The Fake News attempted to paint illegal immigrant gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia as an innocent “Maryland father” who was unjustly deported by the Trump Administration — and actively censored the truth about him.
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FACT: Abrego Garcia is a citizen of El Salvador and was deported to his home country amid overwhelming evidence of his gang affiliation.
HOAX: Deranged “filmmaker” Michael Moore questioned whether deported illegal immigrants would go on to cure cancer or stop “that asteroid (sic) that’s gonna hit us.”
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FACT: Moore’s statement was a strong early contender for the dumbest, most ridiculous statement of the year, considering those deported illegal immigrants were violent criminals.
HOAX: The Fake News portrayed Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Hamas radical who led violent protests at Columbia, as an innocent graduate student with an absolute right to remain in the U.S.
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FACT: An immigration judge ruled Khalil — who is not a U.S. citizen — can be deported.
HOAX: A foreign Fake News reporter claimed President Trump referred to European nations as “parasites.”
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FACT: President Trump immediately pushed back on this ridiculous claim — as did the Italian prime minister.
HOAX: Fake News CNN’s Brianna Keilar implied the Trump Administration was somehow wrong for stopping illegal immigrants from stealing taxpayer dollars in the form of welfare benefits.
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FACT: Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller summarily embarrassed her with the facts: “The federal government will find EVERY illegal alien who is stealing American taxpayer dollars — and that’s what Americans expect to happen. I don’t even fathom the premise of your question.”
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FACT: Kennedy debunked the lie in his confirmation hearings: “This has been repeatedly debunked … Bringing this up right now is dishonest.”
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HOAX: Reuters falsely reported that the Trump Administration “stalled a United Nations program in Mexico aimed at stopping imported fentanyl chemicals from reaching the country’s drug cartels.”
FACT: The Department of State is actually trying to expand the initiative.
HOAX: Fake News savant Tara Palmeri falsely reported that President Trump’s proposal for Gaza was conceived by Jared Kushner.
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FACT: This lie was immediately and summarily debunked by the Trump Administration: “The worst reporter in America makes up fake news for clout because she has no real sources. Sit down, dummy.”
HOAX: Sen. Chris Murphy, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, and media outlets claimed President Trump’s directive to pause radical, wasteful government spending meant an end to Medicaid, food assistance, and other individual assistance programs.
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FACT: Individual assistance programs — Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, etc. — were explicitly excluded, as was made clear by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and the Office of Management and Budget. Only unnecessary spending — DEI, Green New Scam, NGOs that undermine the national interest — were included in the directive.
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FACT: The “advocacy group” was really an astroturfed partisan organization funded by prominent left-wing donors — and accepted fake signatures.
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FACT: That alleged “classified information” was really just an employment headcount — which has been publicly available for years.
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FACT: Secretary Noem actually called illegal immigrant members of the vicious Tren de Aragua gang “dirtbags,” which is true.
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FACT: New York Times made no mention of their own reporting that fluoride may be “linked to lower IQ scores in children.”
HOAX: Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) repeatedly lied about President Trump “going after” Social Security.
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FACT: President Trump has repeatedly pledged to protect Social Security and make it more robust for American citizens.
HOAX: Sen. Mark Kelley (D-AZ) attempted to scare veterans by shamelessly claiming their care was in jeopardy due to “layoffs” at VA hospitals.
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FACT: The lie was debunked by Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins: “What changes are you talking about? We’ve not had those layoffs… I put $360 million back into community care… It’s concerning to me that a veteran would actually tell stories to veterans that are not true.”
HOAX: Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) exploited the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport plane crash tragedy by claiming President Trump “froze the hiring” of air traffic controllers.
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FACT: Air traffic controllers were exempt from the federal hiring freeze.
HOAX: Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) implied that “cutting” members of an aviation advisory committee was somehow a cause of the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport plane crash tragedy.
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FACT: The advisory group hadn’t met since 2023 and was comprised of business and union leaders who gave “advice” to the TSA and had nothing to do with actual air travel.
HOAX: A far-left writer claimed Elon Musk and DOGE staffers “illegally installed a commercial server to control federal HR databases that contain sensitive personal information, including SSNs, home addresses, and medical histories.”
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FACT: A top official confirmed “there’s nothing illegal and no server, just more made up tall tales from uninformed career bureaucrats.”
HOAX: The Washington Post alleged the Trump Administration was setting “quotas” for immigration authorities — and gave the administration just four minutes to comment before publishing.
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FACT: As usual, this was a fake story.
HOAX: Online liberal activists claimed President Trump “took down” President Obama’s portrait in the White House.
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FACT: Obama’s portrait was not taken down — it was simply moved only feet away from its previous location.
HOAX: Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) claimed Attorney General Pam Bondi created a “weaponizing task force.”
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FACT: It was a task force to END weaponization at the Department of Justice.
HOAX: CBS News reported that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered a “makeup studio” be installed inside the Pentagon.
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FACT: It was a “totally fake story,” and the alleged studio was really an existing green room with no frills.
HOAX: Politico reported the Trump Administration was debating lifting sanctions on Russian energy assets, including the Nord Stream pipeline.
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FACT: This was debunked by both Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.
HOAX: An illegal immigrant in U.S. custody “simply disappeared,” The New York Times reported.
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FACT: The illegal immigrant was a confirmed member of the vicious Tren de Aragua gang. An immigration judge ordered his removal, and he was deported along with other threats to national security.
HOAX: The Wall Street Journal alleged that Special Envoy Steve Witkoff was receiving sensitive information on a personal phone while in Moscow and that Russian Intelligence must’ve had access to the information.
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FACT: This was a total fabrication. Special Envoy Witkoff did not even have a personal phone with him in Russia. He had only a government phone; a secure line of communication.
HOAX: The Wall Street Journal claimed the Trump Administration “sought to portray” deported criminal illegal immigrant gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia as “violent.”
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FACT: Abrego Garcia’s own wife filed an order of protection against him and testified that he brutally beat her.
HOAX: An AP reporter claimed that FAA staff who worked on “radar, landing and navigational aid maintenance, among others” were “harassed on Facebook” by DOGE.
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FACT: That was a total lie. DOGE doesn’t have a Facebook page and no professionals who perform critical safety functions were fired.
HOAX: The Daily Beast claimed Vice President JD Vance “broke one of the most notorious Vatican rules during his Easter weekend visit” by being photographed in the Sistine Chapel.
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FACT: Buried all the way down in the 14th paragraph, The Daily Beast admitted the vice president was given special permission by the Vatican to have photographs taken inside the Sistine Chapel.
HOAX: Left-wing social media accounts promoted fake, AI-generated audio of Vice President Vance “disparaging Elon Musk in private.”
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FACT: The audio was debunked as fake.
HOAX: The New York Times reported that funding for the Women’s Health Initiative was being slashed by the Department of Health and Human Services.
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FACT: Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., himself declared this Fake News and recognized the project is “mission critical.”
HOAX: Fox News’s Jennifer Griffin gave legitimacy to a hoax from delusional Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth requested nearly $140,000 in “upgrades” to his government residence.
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FACT: This lie was debunked by Secretary Hegseth — and it was so outrageous, even the Associated Press was forced to admit it was completely fake.
HOAX: Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) and many others claimed the Supreme Court ordered the return of illegal immigrant gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States.
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FACT: Even CNN admitted that’s not what happened: “They did not order the administration to return him to the United States … they could’ve said ‘we order him returned,’ but they didn’t do that.”
HOAX: Joe Biden accused the Trump Administration of “taking aim at Social Security.”
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FACT: As usual, he was lying — President Trump has repeatedly pledged to protect Social Security.
HOAX: Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) claimed the arrest of a Milwaukee judge who helped an illegal immigrant evade arrest was “unprecedented.”
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FACT: It wasn’t; it has happened before.
HOAX: Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) called the arrest of a Milwaukee judge who helped an illegal immigrant evade arrest a “gravely serious and drastic move.”
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FACT: The judge violated the law by obstructing an ICE arrest of an illegal immigrant.
HOAX: Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) claimed the arrest of the Milwaukee judge who obstructed an apprehension of a criminal illegal immigrant “threatens the rule of law.”
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FACT: It literally does the opposite because no one is above the law.
HOAX: Politico claimed the Trump Administration “wipe[d] out firefighter health and safety programs.”
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FACT: The programs remain a top priority for the administration — and will remain intact.
HOAX: Sen. Elizabeth Warren claimed that President Trump’s policies make it so “no one wants to make investments in the United States.”
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FACT: President Trump has secured more than $5 trillion in investments since taking office, which is expected to create more than 451,000 new jobs — and the list is only expected to grow.
HOAX: NBC’s Kristen Welker peddled a Fake News hoax that the Trump Administration was deporting children.
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FACT: Secretary of State Marco Rubio shut down her desperate attempt at a hoax by highlighting how the mother, who was in the country illegally, made that choice all on her own.
HOAX: The New York Times implied President Trump was alone in wearing a blue suit to the funeral of Pope Francis.
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FACT: Photos show dozens of world leaders and other attendees — many situated near President Trump — also wearing blue clothing.
HOAX: Teachers’ union boss Randi Weingarten accused President Trump of taking teachers’ salaries and giving them to “billionaires” by cutting the Department of Education.
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FACT: President Trump has repeatedly called teachers “the most important people in this country” who should be paid more, not less. The federal government does not pay the salaries of teachers; state and local governments do.
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FACT: That’s not what happened. The individual “approached Border Patrol in Tucson and stated he had entered the U.S. illegally through Nogales. He said he wanted to turn himself in and completed a sworn statement identifying as a Mexican citizen who had entered unlawfully … A few days later, his family presented documents showing U.S. citizenship. The charges were dismissed, and he was released to his family.”
HOAX: PBS News claimed “DOGE operatives attempted to gain access to secure spaces,” implying they attempted to access classified information without approval.
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FACT: This wasn’t even remotely true.
HOAX: The AP falsely claimed Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said President Trump is “very good friends” with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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FACT: The AP was humiliatingly forced to retract its story, admitting they were wrong. Stephanie Ruhle also had to issue a correction. DNI Gabbard was referencing President Trump’s relationship with Indian PM Narendra Modi.
HOAX: Student visa holders should have unfettered access to do whatever they want in the United States.
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FACT: Wrong. As Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “When you apply to enter the United States and you get a visa, you are a guest… If you tell us when you apply for a visa ‘I’m coming to the U.S. to participate in pro-Hamas events,’ that runs counter to the foreign policy interest of the United States… If you had told us you were going to do that, we never would have given you the visa.”
They lie because they know that political hoaxes are believed. Also known as "Fake News," those deliberately false stories and claims are designed to deceive or manipulate public opinion. And yes, people believe them even after those stories have been debunked. It seems as though it just doesn't matter. The world is such that people would rather believe the lie, even when they've been given the truth.
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Today, the worst fraud carried out on the American people has nothing to do with some shady character standing on a corner trying to trick you out of your money. Americans today have learned the hard way that believing the lies that the Mainstream Media pushes -- actually demands that we all believe in hoax after hoax after hoax -- lie after lie after lie. And really, that's why the news media as a whole is not trusted today. They lie.
Of course, because the Mainstream Media is primarily in bed with the Democratic Party and the extreme Left, the lies that are spread are used to advance a particular political agenda of the Left. Because fraud is being perpetrated on a lot more people today, simply because technology is such that a lie can be spread far and wide in no time at all, the Mainstream Media uses fraud, hoaxes, and lies to promote their Leftist political agenda. That's just the way it is. And really, it doesn't look like it will ever stop.
It's sad, but that's why the Mainstream Media, the news media, the entertainment industry, and other forms of media sympathetic to the agenda of the Democratic Party have lost the trust of the American people. As seen above in example after example, the news media has almost zero credibility today. That's the reason the Mainstream Media is now commonly referred to as "Fake News."
Tom Correa
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