From Fringe to White House: How a Speculative Tale About Dead Scientists Entered Mainstream Discourse

To the point

Fringe theories about the deaths and disappearances of scientists, begun by Daniel Liszt and Jessica Reed Kraus around Nuno Loureiro, spread from online circles to mainstream media and the White House, drew attention from lawmakers like Tim Burchett and Anna Paulina Luna and media figures such as Joe Rogan and Glenn Beck, and were later tempered by CNN's finding that many cases had no clear links to sensitive programs, illustrating how attention-driven media can push unverified ideas into official discourse.