Hey, Journalists! Viral tweets aren't sources!

Viral stories are actively changing, and the coverage of these stories don't seem to stem from research or investigation, but rather information from unreliable tweets.

If you are active on Twitter, you probably came across the viral tweet with a GoFundMe for Quran, a conservative woman who was kicked out of her home for supporting Trump, conflicting the political views of her family.

Soon after these tweets had reached a large audience, Quran tweeted and admitted it was a joke. The media picked up the story around this time in its development. You can find many articles online covering the story, claiming this woman "scammed conservatives out of thousands."

Here are just a few of the many articles claiming Quran stole over $150,000 from conservatives:

Black American Web

News One

HipHop Wired

Raw Story

The Citizen

And the list goes on...

Where did they pull this enormous number, you ask? None other than twitter.

These news sites blasted the story with exaggerations and still have the incorrect information up, obviously dropping the evolving story.

In reality, Quran told New York magazine she's given back the money donated to her, which she estimated to be around $200.

Bobby Whithorne, a spokesperson for GoFundMe, told BuzzFeedNews that only four people donated to the campaign, and the total was only $97. He confirmed all four donors have been refunded.

Perhaps lazy journalists who fail to investigate or the clickbait culture is to blame for fake news. Regardless, people who have the duty of reporting to the public should know better not to structure their article off of tweets. And as consumers of news, we are left to do the fact checking for them.