With all the fake news floating around the internet nowadays, it's never been more important to do your homework and make sure what you're reading is legit. But satirical websites make it a bit difficult too.
For ESPN Radio hosts Mike Golic and Trey Wingo (perhaps their producer as well), a satirical article did not prove too good to be true for them. They thought it was true.
Golic and Wingo read an article from New Maine News Thursday morning, clearly baffled by the headline and story itself: "Class D basketball game called off after ball gets stuck behind wood stove."
Fortunately for them, they had every reason to be confused (like, how does a wood stove testify?). Unfortunately, they ran with it.
ESPN Radio and hosts Golic and Wingo have not responded to a request for comment.
New Maine News creator Seth Macy insists he doesn't set out to trick people, just to make them laugh.
"If no one on ESPN could be bothered to click through to the site to read the other headlines, or do the five minutes of research it takes to realize it was a satirical take, that's a bummer for them," Macy said. "Today's headline is about an orc army commanded by Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling, so it would literally have taken one click to figure out 'oh, yeah, this site is satire.'"
That wasn't before he had a little fun with the gaffe from ESPN Radio, dubbing their confusion over a scene of Goodfellas.
Macy also added that he officially maintains "New Maine News is Maine's most accurate, real, and definitely not made-up-each-night-before-bed news site."