Some of the bylines I couldn't substantiate, as in they didn't have a LinkedIn profile or other site. Others were real people, but their emails didn't match the emails listed on their websites. I reached out to one via her listed email and asked if she had pitched, and she confirmed she had not.

There were two consistencies that seemed off. The portfolio links that the authors sent were always MuckRock pages, and the email signoffs had a period after the name.

Example:
Thanks,
Rachel Lobdell.

brasstaxes.com

And a reminder: When pop culture comparisons are looked down upon as silly or unintelligent, it's usually because it highlights something that women enjoy, which society has deemed as unserious.

I'm thinking a lot about this as we enter the holiday season and the famous era of "how to not kill your family over dinner" stories. How can we use this time to share resources on truthful information sources?