Fake News About Angelina Jolie In ‘Fury’ Over Brad Pitt ‘Romance’ Tops Search Results

Truth rating: 0

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Readers are being duped by fake news about Angelina Jolie supposedly being in a “fury” over Brad Pitt’s “romance.” Though these falsehoods have already been debunked, this narrative is still the top result on search engines. Gossip Cop can explain what’s going on.

Last week, on April 18, we called out RadarOnline and the print edition of the National Enquirer for running virtually identical, untruthful stories about Jolie supposedly being “furious” over Pitt’s alleged relationship with Neri Oxman. The reports alleged the actor was so “over the moon about his new love” that he believed Oxman “could be his next wife.” The articles went on to contend that the romance could “cost him in court,” because Jolie’s “fury over his new relationship” could be used against Pitt in their ongoing divorce and custody battle.

Gossip Cop explained, with evidence, why these contentions are false. For starters, Jolie would have no legal grounds for using Pitt’s purported relationship in a court case. But beyond that, this storyline was flawed because the main premise — Jolie’s anger over her estranged husband’s love life — hinged on Pitt and Oxman being a couple. They are not. As Page Six first reported, and we confirmed with his spokesperson, Pitt and the MIT professor are strictly professional friends and have not embarked on a romance. So Jolie has nothing to be “furious” about. The sisters outlets would’ve known that if they actually had real insight and genuine “insiders,” as claimed.

After the allegations were disproven, the National Enquirer waited a week before publishing its bogus story online on April 25. Did the supermarket tabloid have new evidence to support its assertions? No. Did the magazine have proof to counter our debunking? No. There was nothing substantially different about this digital version of the tall tale. But even though it was already shot down, it was still promoted on search engines as new content.

Now on April 28, this fake news is still being prioritized over new and accurate news, as seen in the screengrab below. That means when fans search “Angelina Jolie,” one of the first things they see in “Top Stories” is misinformation. This can’t even be excused away as the search engine merely showing the most recent article about Jolie. As the search result itself indicates, this post is from “3 days ago.” The notion that nothing about Jolie has been published online since then is implausible. Unfortunately, an old, inaccurate article, particularly one that was debunked, is instead being given prominence and visitors are getting fake news instead of fact-checked news.

(Search Engine)