We hate fake news but we loved 'Weekly World News'

SAN FRANCISCO — A beacon of shining fake news, Weekly World News, is alive and kicking, much like the infamous Bat Child it exclusively discovered in a cave years ago. (Not sure about his/her status.)

For nearly 30 years (1979-2007), the sensational tabloid entertained, amused and baffled its loyal readers with otherworldly accounts of aliens ("Hillary Clinton Adopts Alien Baby"), Elvis ("Elvis Is Alive — And Running For President!") and the ridiculous ("World's Smartest Chimp Goes To College").

Mostly, it sold  — usually at supermarket checkout lines, on a rack nestled next to its distant cousin, The National Enquirer. WWN's circulation peaked at 1.2 million prints per issue.

"Fake news has always been popular: Look at the sales of The National Inquirer, Weekly World News and Globe in the pre-Internet age," says Steve Miller, a journalism professor at Rutgers University. "Gossip and escapist entertainment let people escape their humdrum lives."

Full disclosure: Despite my training in traditional journalism, I was an unabashed fan of the tabloid WWN and its penchant for spectacularly sensational stories.

But like all good things, the fictional news publication — notorious for its black-and-white cover stories on the supernatural and silly —  faded away with the advent of the Internet. WWN resurfaced, appropriately, online in 2009. (This week's cover: "Alien Endorses Trump.")

Neil McGinness, its current editor-in-chief and editor of the retrospective book Weekly World News (2014), used to sneak a copy of the pub into the far reaches of Safeway to catch up on the latest in JFK conspiracy theories and the paranormal, according to a piece in The Atlantic two years ago.

WWN did not return an email message seeking comment.

Bat Boy, Hillary Clinton's Alien Baby, and a Tabloid's Glorious Legacy

American Media, which launched WWN as an outrageous outgrowth of the Enquirer, correctly bet the American public would lap up over-the-top content.

Today, much the same holds true. Fake news, in the form of fantastical claims motivated by ideology and profit, holds considerable sway over millions with the advent of social media, our new virtual supermarkets, say media experts.

"It's analogous to the appeal of slapstick comedy," says Ryan Martin, an anger researcher and chairperson of the psychology department at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. "The Onion is smart funny, but others are drawn to the absurd outlandish."

The predilection for phony news reaches all the way to the top: President-elect Donald Trump has greatly propagated its proliferation, both as a consumer and disseminator, says Angelo Carusone, executive vice president at Media Matters for America, a watchdog that says it's focused on monitoring and correcting conservative media.

A recent post-election claim by Trump was that he "won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally." That statement was discredited by fact-checking organizations, as well as Trump adviser Newt Gingrich. But that statement wasn't his alone; it was echoed by a range of news websites, largely highly partisan ones.

"He has an incentive to elevate some of the sources of it, such as Alex Jones and Infowars," says Carusone.

Fact check: Trump sticks with bogus voter fraud claims

A Trump spokesperson did not reply to an email message seeking comment.

Sometimes a fib can simply be an intoxicant, an emotional roller coaster ride based loosely on facts that both affirms personal beliefs while titillating the senses.

“False narratives can be a drug: Pro wrestling is a prime example, where we are willing to suspend belief,” says psychiatrist Keith Ablow. “This stuff gets your heart going – you can laugh and get angry. It’s a great ride you can walk away safely from.”

Follow USA TODAY San Francisco Bureau Chief Jon Swartz @jswartz on Twitter.