icanhazpbr

Anyone can get signatures. The “getting votes” part is what’s at issue here. How many votes has he gotten in previous elections? Your article doesn’t provide that info, and leaves the otherwise uniformed reader to assume he’s a serious candidate.

Right, but it’s all about the context you provide in your article. The NY Post, at least led their article (presumably based on yours) with the fact that he had done time in prison for threatening to kill President Obama, and properly framed his disturbing online beliefs within the context of his extremely marginal public life. Is this story newsworthy, and the info you uncovered worth sharing with the public? Certainly. But in an age of information overload those presenting that information bear some responsibility for helping readers make sense of what it means. Just saying “it’s up to the voters” is a cop out. You framed the article around his candidacy, but buried any discussion about just how low this guy’s public profile really was. That’s why it’s being called clickbait, not because the story itself wasn’t newsworthy.

Right. And those 481 were likely those who just saw the “Independent” next to him name and follow the “both parties are the same” principle without having any idea who they were voting for.