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An inadequately fact-checked news item leads to a fabricated claim that the president fabricated and lied about parts of his memoir.

Obama for America

One reason why fake news is so pervasive, so easy to spread, and so hard to debunk is that it almost always has some sort of basis in reality.

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For example, real-life end-of-life consultation becomes "death panels." Because debunkers have to explain the complex reality in detail, the simpler but false version never gets dislodged. But it's not often that we get to see just how the fake-news sausage gets made.

Today was an exception -- we can trace exactly how the false claim that Obama lied about his college girlfriends in his memoir got started.

Rock-star journalist and presidential bi