Long before there was “fake news” there was the National Enquirer.
It’s not as though obviously false stories written for entertainment, and to make a buck, were anything new. The Enquirer, however, gave the form a brand name. Anyone stuck behind a person with a full shopping cart came to know Bat Boy, Lobster Boy, Bigfoot, and a parade of celebrities doing awful things. It was a chuckle usually wrapped around a sneer – “Who reads this stuff?”
Though this rag was known for publishing nearly anything, what it deliberately didn’t publish turns out to be much more interesting.
Barataria - The work of Erik Hare 