On March 24, 2024, a post went viral on Facebook claiming that Stephen King's publisher had dropped him because of "woke crap":
The post gained 12,000 reactions, 5,100 comments and 1,000 shares. However, this was not a factual recounting of real-life events. The claim originated from a story that was satirical in nature.
The pinned comment linked to a story on The Dunning-Kruger Times positing the same thing:
Stephen King Dumped by His Publisher for Pushing "Wokeness"
I'm more than certain you're aware of who Stephen King is. The maker of nightmares for decades, from Carrie and Cujo to Mr. Mercedes and It. But now he's facing his biggest villain yet. In the real world.
Bantam Publishing House, the tried and true publisher of fiction and non-fiction alike, has announced the dissolution of it's [sic] partnership with the multi-million dollar author, citing a mountain of complaints about his newer material bigger than Christine's garage.
The website is part of the America's Last Line of Defense network and describes its output as being humorous or satirical in nature. Its disclaimer, which includes a nod to Snopes, reads as follows:
Dunning-Kruger-Times.com is a subsidiary of the "America's Last Line of Defense" network of parody, satire, and tomfoolery, or as Snopes called it before they lost their war on satire: Junk News.
For background, here is why we sometimes write about satire/humor.