A Maryland man who wrote a fake news story this fall about a Columbus warehouse holding thousands of fraudulent votes for Hillary Clinton had no evidence - and now, he has no job.
A lawmaker in Maryland fired Cameron Harris, a legislative aide, after a New York Times article revealed Harris' role in the fake news business.
Harris says he started the website Christiantimesnewspaper.com and wrote the well-known story because he knew it would get clicks.
Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted called out the story in October as false and intentionally misleading, and says he took offense to reading lies from a publication alleging Christian ties.
Harris worked for a Republican state lawmaker, but he tells The New York Times his motivation was purely financial.
“They spread so far that the reach grows, and the more clicks that come in, the more ad revenue is generated. The ads that you see on the sidebar of a web site – The New York Times web site,” Harris told the paper.
Harris says the site brought him about $100,000 in ad revenue, including $22,000 for the warehouse story. He apologized on Twitter and said he hopes his cases spurs a larger conversation about how Americans approach the media.
