Kerry Investigates Nazi UFOs in Antarctica: 12 Best Fake News Stories of 2016

Fake news (some prefer fictional news and information), was much discussed in 2016. Teenagers in towns across Macedonia competed for hits with each other and with mainstream US Media, posting fake story after fake story. Seriously, fake news became a cottage industry in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. That's the country's official name. No, really.

Some feel fake news propelled the election of Donald Trump. Personally I think the Dems did themselves in, but I digress. Here are the most memorable fake news stories of 2016.

1. Hillary Clinton was involved in a child sex ring, centering on a DC Pizza parlor. It was utterly untrue, but even General Michael Flynn tweeted about it. And yes, it may have lead to a guy with a gun at Cosmo Pizza. But Pizzagate never happened. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/pizzagate-clinton-conspiracy-theory-led-dc-shooting-article-1.2899371

2. Pope Francis Endorses Donald Trump: Released 2 days before the election, this little ditty probably didn't result in too many votes, since Pope Francis actually warned about the dangers of "political candidates who inspire with hatred," during the primary.

3. Donald Trump Accused of Statutory Rape: Ok, there really was a lady who filed not one but two lawsuit saying Trump raped her when she was 14. She disappeared after filing suit and informing the media both times. Sorry, but anyone could do that.

4. An FBI agent named Brown who was involved in the investigation of Hillary Clinton use of a private server, mysteriously murdered in a DC hotel room: 6 million hits, and no truth to it at all. Fiction, written by a man named Jack Horner that NPR tracked down in Colorado.

5. John Kerry Visited Antarctica to Investigate Reports of a UFO Base Occupied by Adolf Hitler During World War II: Well, look. The first 4 words are true, actually. The US Secretary of State did visit the Icy continent in November, 2016. And no one is really sure why, though the official explanation is "To investigate global warming."

6. Paid Trump Protestor Speaks Out: I Was Paid $3500 to Protest Trump Rally. ABC News picked up the story. Eric Trump and campaign manager Corey Lewandowsky both fell for it. But it wasn't really true.

7. Michelle Demands Americans Pay Her Mom a Pension of $160,000 a year: Those boys in Veles never tired of writing about Pres. Obama's family.

8. Hillary Clinton Diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease: Well look. Mrs. Clinton did collapse on 9/11/2016. That was filmed. But it seems to have been exhaustion and dehydration.

9. WikiLeaks: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sold weapons to ISIS. It's ironic that Hillary Clinton was the victim of so much fake news. As Secretary of State invented the Benghazi was a protest of a Video Gone Wild story. Neither story turned out to be true

10. Mural Artist Banksy Arrested for Graffiti: Hmmm, sounded plausible. But wasn't.

11. Yelp Sues South Park for lampooning them. Yelp trashes almsot every small business, but did not sue South Park.

12. President Obama Bans the Pledge of Allegiance in Schools: Classic! But not true.

"In the last three months prior to election day, there have been over 8,711,000 Facebook reactions, shares, and comments generated by the top 20 fake elections stories according to BuzzFeed News' Craig Silverman. These engagements outpaced the top 20 election stories from 19 major news websites, which received a total of 7,367,000 shares, reactions, and comments on Facebook. Fake news has become a lucrative industry."