Nontroversy

A nontroversy is a controversy that is made up by someone for self-serving purposes. This is commonly done by politicians to distract the public and some media outlets to attract an audience.

The term comes from the combination of "non" and "controversy". Nontroversies have exponentially increased since the rise of 24 hour news channels, Internet, and social media. These fake controversies are a sly practice for rolling out content, getting clicks, gaining viewers, and, in general, keeping people entertained. Key aspects of nontroversies are claiming people are offended when they are not, misquoting people, and not checking the source of the story.