{"id":20413,"date":"2026-02-18T19:17:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T03:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/?p=20413"},"modified":"2026-02-28T18:05:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T02:05:05","slug":"atlantic-magazine-misleads-readers-with-fictional-story-presented-as-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/2026\/02\/18\/atlantic-magazine-misleads-readers-with-fictional-story-presented-as-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlantic Magazine misleads readers with fictional story presented as reality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The story was presented as a real life tale – except it was entirely fiction: The Atlantic’s measles essay sparks controversy – The Washington Post<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story implies it is by the mother of unvaccinated children, one of whom dies from measles. The story is heart breaking and emotional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it is a work of fiction presented as real life. It’s fake. And that was not made clear to readers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

“\u201cIt is a hypothetical account of a very real phenomenon based on careful reporting,\u201d she said. \u201cI would place it somewhere on the creative nonfiction spectrum.\u201d She said that she interviewed doctors for her piece, and based the character of the mother on herself.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

More here: The Atlantic\u2019s Elizabeth Bruenig on her \u201chypothetical,\u201d heavily reported measles essay | Nieman Journalism Lab<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writers who achieve attention often have common background elements. She attended private Brandeis University (almost $100k\/year in unsubsidized expenses<\/a>) and then a Masters degree at Cambridge (on a scholarship). She is fluent in English and German and the granddaughter of Irish writer Bram Stoker<\/a> (which means she can qualify for Irish citizenship). (More on Bram Stoker<\/a>). She identifies as a socialist<\/a> and experiences rare epileptic seizures<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An essay in The Atlantic describes a mother who loses a son to measles. It’s presented as a true story – except it was fake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,359,19,26,29,352,39,40,348],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-emotion","category-everything-is-awful","category-fear","category-lies","category-media","category-misinformation","category-fake-news","category-fictional-news","category-public-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20413"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20502,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20413\/revisions\/20502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}