Fact Check

President Obama Reported Sedated Following Emotional Breakdown

Has President Obama suffered a mental breakdown?

Published Sept. 21, 2013

Claim:

Claim:   President Obama has suffered a "mental breakdown."


FALSE


Example:   [Collected via Facebook, September 2013]


Is it true that Obama has had some sort of emotional breakdown and has been sedated? Facebook is saying so. Thanks for clearing this up for all of us.

 

Origins:   On 20 September 2013, the National Report published an article ("President Obama Reported Sedated Following Emotional Breakdown") positing that President Obama had been sedated by doctors following a "mental breakdown":



Late this afternoon White House insiders leaked information stating the president has suffered a mental breakdown and is presently resting and under a doctors care. This afternoon the National Report received three calls on our nationwide hot tip line (206) 222-1975. Two of the three callers are insiders known to the National Report to be reliable confidential informants.

The caller unknown to this publication is a low level employee who could only state that there was some kind of a medical emergency involving President Obama. The other two callers known to us are both support personnel within the Obama administration. Both confirmed this week has been a political disaster for the president and this has taken a tremendous toll on him.


By the following day links and excerpts referencing this article were being circulated via social media, with many of those who encountered the item mistaking it for a genuine news article. However, the article was just a bit of satire from the National Report, a web site that publishes outrageous fictional stories such as "IRS Plans to Target Leprechauns Next," "Boy Scouts Announce Boobs Merit Badge," and "New CDC Study Indicates Pets of Gay Couples Worse at Sports, Better at Fashion Than Pets of Straight Couples."

The National Report's (since removed) disclaimer page notes that:



National Report is a news and political satire web publication, which may or may not use real names, often in semi-real or mostly fictitious ways. All news articles contained within National Report are fiction, and presumably fake news. Any resemblance to the truth is purely coincidental.


Last updated:   21 September 2013

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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