Fellow fraternity brothers defend Davidson grad at center of fake news storm

Two of Cameron Harris’ fraternity brothers at Davidson College voiced support Thursday for a young man in the center of a real social media storm over fake news.

On Wednesday, the New York Times posted a story and video on how Harris created a phony story about the presidential race with the headline: “BREAKING: ‘Tens of thousands’ of fraudulent Clinton votes found in Ohio warehouse.”

The story ultimately was shared more than 6 million times, the Times said. Harris, who is from Kings Mountain in Cleveland County, about 30 miles west of Charlotte, said he made several thousand dollars off it through people clicking on ads on his website.

By Wednesday night, Harris apologized on Twitter “to those disappointed by my actions.” And he was fired “on the spot” by the Republican Maryland legislator he worked for as an aide, the Washington Post reported.

Davidson senior Jaylen Mize, who was in Phi Delta Theta fraternity with Harris, called him a good student, a funny guy and someone who few people could say anything bad about before this incident.

If he could talk to Harris now, Mize said, “I’d tell him (the fake story) was hilarious, and I wouldn’t put it past him to do something like that.”

People have been talking about it on campus and a couple of political science professors mentioned the episode in passing in class, Mize said.

He said he understands how all the attention over the fake news story could make Davidson look bad. “But at the same time, I’m kind of proud of it. He wrote it so well that he made many people believe it,” Mize said.

Another fraternity member, senior James Gessner, said he was disappointed in people who knew Harris and were slamming him online.

“Davidson College is not about ostracizing someone,” Gessner said. While he does not support Harris’ fake news posts, Gessner called Harris “a genuinely good guy, and hopefully he can redeem himself.”

Harris was vice president of the fraternity.

“I’d think that people who knew him for so long would just say, maybe it was an honest mistake by a guy who got a little lost along the way, didn’t know where to go and was looking for some money,” Gessner said. “All of us have lied before, whether it was big or small. I don’t know how you can throw stones in a glass house.”

Some people who said they were Davidson graduates took to social media to blast Harris, citing the school’s cherished honor code. It’s a declaration by the college community “that the honorable course is the most just, and therefore the best,” according to the school website.

Sophomore Olivia Daniels said she didn’t think the actions of one person would tar an entire campus community. The private, liberal arts college has about 1,950 students.

“The news moves so quickly, I’d be surprised if you hear about this in a week,” added sophomore A.J. Naddaff.

Academic, athletic honors

Harris, a 23-year-old registered Republican, graduated in the spring from Davidson after majoring in political science and economics. He could not be reached for comment.

At Davidson, he was on the football team for two years, as a quarterback then as outside linebacker.

A bio on the college’s 2012 football roster stated Harris was named to a football league academic honor roll. At Kings Mountain High, he held five school passing records, was in the National Honor Society and was the class salutatorian.

A school official could not be reached for comment. Harris’ parents in Kings Mountain also could not be reached.

Davidson College spokesman Mark Johnson declined to comment Thursday beyond a statement the school released Wednesday: “Davidson works hard to create a culture of trust in which honesty and personal integrity are foundational. We hope that these values are instilled for life and we are disappointed when any alumnus falls short”

Future plans

In the Times video, Harris explained how he bought an abandoned website, ChristianTimesNewspaper.com, for $5 last year. When he started churning out anti-Clinton stories, he told the Times his motivation wasn’t political but “financial. It was a way to make money.”

The more clicks on the story, the more it was shared, the more people clicked on ads that Google placed on his web page, earning him about $5,000 for about 15 minutes of work on that one story.

He told the Times he had mixed feelings about his “extremely small” role in the fake news universe: “The larger picture is there is a political climate in America that provides for fake news stories, disinformation, such divided politics, to prosper.”

Harris also told the Times he no longer is interested in being in the fake news business: “With the election ending, the market for fake news has significantly dropped, especially with Facebook and Google taking actions against the spread of these stories.”

This story was originally published January 19, 2017 at 3:46 PM with the headline "Fellow fraternity brothers defend Davidson grad at center of fake news storm."