When online satire gets presented as the facts

Sometimes a story is so outrageous, the old journalist’s saying goes, that it’s “too good to check.”

There’s been a lot of that going on recently.

Recently, PolitiFact checked the claim — made on the Mr. Conservative website and elsewhere in the blogosphere and on social media — that the Obama administration is handing out a pamphlet titled, “What To Do When The Veteran In Your Classroom Attempts A Mass Shooting.”

Some quick Googling enabled us to find the source easily, a website called the Duffel Blog that offers satirical articles to servicemembers and veterans.

This is only the latest claim we’ve checked that began as satire but was transformed by social media into “truth.” To see all the latest examples, go to PolitiFact national.