Absolutely, but for many those stories to gain traction in the first place, often there needs to be a marketing seed of some sort. That's where the "fake news"

Absolutely, but for many those stories to gain traction in the first place, often there needs to be a marketing seed of some sort. That's where the "fake news" machinery comes in. (Of course, some sizeable subset is a chain mail or story that spreads organically, or some fake news mill trying to make money.)