Website caught publishing fake news of a leaked photo of a naked Bill Clinton

A website called the Political Insider is publishing fake news of a leaked photo of former President Bill Clinton sitting naked next to a woman massaging his back.

The image in question is part of a British contemporary artist’s portfolio of placing celebrities and prominent figures in compromising situations. We've included it below, but be warned, it's a bit jarring.

"The Clintons are Finished Forever After Dirty Picture LEAKS! (NSFW)," the website wrote Nov. 15, 2016.

The post says the images are not confirmed, but then goes on to speculate who the woman is and surmises that both the person in the image and Clinton are left-handed: "If that’s not Bill Clinton, it sure looks like him."

The post tracks back to the Twitter account of a user named 0Hour.

In reality, the image was cropped and lifted off the website of contemporary artist Alison Jackson. Here is a screengrab of the full image from her website:

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And here is how Jackson describes her work. 

"Alison Jackson is renown for her explorations into how photography and the cult of the celebrity have transformed our relationship to what is ‘real’. Her notorious photographic portraits, life-like sculptures, films and videos are startlingly realistically staged affairs that cast uncannily styled actors into an entirely fathomable projection of a future that could have been; or the intimate, often salacious, imagined private moments of media icons such as Diana Princess of Wales, the Queen of England, Marilyn Monroe, George Bush, Brad and Angelina, and David Beckham. Jackson’s productions stress-test the implicit belief that a photograph can capture a frozen moment of ‘truth’."

Jackson also has portrayed President-Elect Donald Trump as part of work for Vanity Fair. She has a new book with her images, entitled Private 2016, available on Amazon.

Through a spokeswoman, Jackson told us that she is "delighted one of my works is part of the ‘fake news’ movement. ... My work is about celebrities and public figures in private, things we have all imagined but never seen before. We think we know them intimately but we only know them through the media imagery -- very few of us have met them for real. Celebrities and public figures are created by the media industries."

Our ruling

The website Political Insider is peddling fake news showing an alleged image of Bill Clinton naked with another woman.

The image was actually created by a contemporary artist who depicts celebrities and politicians in compromising positions. It is not a real image.

We rate this claim Pants on Fire.

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