Q: Was Malia Obama fired from an internship for smoking marijuana? Was she arrested for buying marijuana in Chicago?
A: No. Those spoof stories were made up to troll conservative readers.
FULL QUESTION
Was Malia Obama fired from a job (or internship) at the Spanish Embassy for smoking pot?
Is it true that Malia Obama was arrested at home with pounds of marijuana?
FULL ANSWER
FactCheck.org readers have asked about a story published in late June that claims Malia Obama — Barack and Michelle Obama’s eldest daughter — was let go from an internship at the U.S. Embassy in Spain for smoking marijuana. “She was caught, by Embassy Security — aka the US Marines — on the roof of the building burning a doobie and playing with the Ambassador’s carrier pigeons,” it says.
Our readers have also inquired about another story published in early August that claims “she was just caught in a massive marijuana bust in her home city of Chicago, Illinois.”
Neither story is true.
Obama, who will be a freshman at Harvard University in the fall, reportedly interned at the American Embassy in Madrid during the summer of 2016, not 2017. And there were no legitimate news reports about her being fired — for marijuana or any other reason.
The story of her termination was made up by FreedomCrossroads.us. The website’s “about us” page says: “Freedom Crossroads uses facts that don’t exist and relies more on imagination than the truth. In fact, there is likely no truth at all in what you will read here. All of our articles are basically a crock of doody and should be considered satirical whimsies for today’s aging conservative.”
The other bogus story says Obama was arrested in Chicago for “buying weed edibles from two of her thug friends as well as enough pot to make thug rapper Snoop Dogg look like an amateur.” That one was published on DailyNewsExplorer.com, where Facebook users flagged it as potentially fake news. A disclaimer on the website says: “DailyNewsExplorer.com is a satirical publication that may sometimes appear to be telling the truth. We assure you that’s not the case. We present fiction as fact and our sources don’t actually exist.”
The story of Obama’s alleged arrest was also published on ourlandofthefree.com, a related satirical publication that we’ve written about before. The website has published at least two follow-ups that are also fake: “Barack Obama Released His Daughter’s Drug Dealer From Prison In 2015” and “Malia Obama’s Muslim Weed Dealer Sent Money To ISIS.”
Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to help identify and label viral fake news stories flagged by readers on the social media network.
Sources
“Malia Obama Fired From Cushy Internship At Spanish Embassy.” Freedomcrossroads.us. 29 Jun 2017.
“BREAKING: Malia Obama Busted Buying 6 POUNDS Of Marijuana In Chicago.” Dailynewsexplorer.com. 5 Aug 2017.
Foxtrot, David “Tango.” “BREAKING: Malia Obama Busted Buying 6 POUNDS Of Marijuana In Chicago.” Ourlandofthefree.com. 5 Aug 2017.
Fox News. “Malia Obama to spend summer as an intern at U.S. Embassy in Spain.” 28 Jun 2016.
Munoz Camos, Carmen. “Malia, becaria en Madrid.” ABC Espana. 6 Jul 2016.
Schaedel, Sydney. “Websites that Post Fake and Satirical Stories.” FactCheck.org. 6 Jul 2017, updated 7 Aug 2017.
Foxtrot, David “Tango.” “Barack Obama Released His Daughter’s Drug Dealer From Prison In 2015.” Ourlandofthefree.com. 5 Aug 2017.
Foxtrot, David “Tango.” “BREAKING: Malia Obama’s Muslim Weed Dealer Sent Money To ISIS.” Ourlandofthefree.com. 5 Aug 2017.
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