Fake News: Canadian Lumberjack NOT Accidentally Voted Portland's 'Hipster of the Year'

Fact Check

  • by: Maarten Schenk
Fake News: Canadian Lumberjack NOT Accidentally Voted Portland's 'Hipster of the Year'

Was 29-year-old Canadian tourist/lumberjack Kyle Tremblay accidentally voted "Hipster of the Year" in Portland, Oregon? No, that's just a satire story published by the English language version of an originally German satirical website.

The story appeared in an article published on April 27, 2018 titled "Canadian lumberjack accidentally voted Portland's 'Hipster of the Year'" (archived here) which opened:

Portland, OR (dpo) - While on holiday in the picturesque city of Portland, OR, a Canadian tourist found himself awarded the title 'Hipster of the Year 2018' by the local hipster community. 29 year-old lumberjack Kyle Tremblay was praised by the panel for his authentic hipster look, despite his never having entered the competition.
"I was just walking through Pearl with my coffee when suddenly a group approached me and congratulated me with smiles on their faces," recounts Tremblay as he recalls his surprise win. "I didn't really understand what they were talking about but it seemed I had won some kind of tree-felling award."

The photo illustrating the story is actually just a stock photo of a random lumberjack. And the article is just the translation of a satirical story about a tourist/lumberjack from Finland named Kimi Virtanen receiving the same award in Berlin which was published on September 1, 2017 on the German version of the site (Der Postillon):

Aus Versehen: Finnischer Holzfäller gewinnt Berliner "Hipster des Jahres"-Wahl

Berlin (dpo) - Ein finnischer Tourist ist während seines Berlin-Urlaubs von der dortigen Hipster-Szene zum "Hipster des Jahres 2017" gewählt worden. Der 29-jährige Holzfäller Kimi Virtanen wurde laut Jury besonders für seinen authentischen Hipster-Look ausgezeichnet - und das, obwohl er sich gar nicht zur Wahl aufgestellt hatte.

The Postillon has a disclaimer on it's FAQ page that reads:

1. Are these true news and stories?
No, everything you can read here is satire and therefore all made-up. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

The site is the English version of the German original der-postillon.com, another well-known satire website.

We wrote about the-postillon.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:

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  Maarten Schenk

Lead Stories co-founder Maarten Schenk is our resident expert on fake news and hoax websites. He likes to go beyond just debunking trending fake news stories and is endlessly fascinated by the dazzling variety of psychological and technical tricks used by the people and networks who intentionally spread made-up things on the internet.  He can often be found at conferences and events about fake news, disinformation and fact checking when he is not in his office in Belgium monitoring and tracking the latest fake article to go viral.

Read more about or contact Maarten Schenk

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