Editor’s Note: This story has come back into the news when President Trump repeated aspects of the Pershing pig’s blood story on August 17, 2017.

In the clickbait era, propaganda without research has replaced journalism. It seems that reporters either will not do basic searches to verify their claims, or they willfully ignore the results.

Multiple sources have claimed that there is no evidence for Republican nominee for President Donald Trump’s anecdote describing Gen. John J. Pershing’s using pigs blood to defile the bodies of Muslims committing terrorists acts in the Philippians during the early 20th century.

Clickbait trollsite, New York Daily News, claims: “You might think that after Trump’s Pershing legend was so thoroughly debunked the candidate would leave well enough alone and move on.”

Similarly, heavily debunked Snopes declares, “We found no references to this alleged incident in Pershing biographies… As William Lambers noted, Pershing executed no Muslims. At most, anecdotal accounts attributed Pershing’s success to his merely threatening to do as described”.

A simple search verifies that both sites fail to perform basic research.

As early as 1923, the story appears in print and again the following year. The 1961 book Black Jack Pershing describes the anecdote and in the 1962 Pacific Historical Review. The 1965 General Pershing, Strong Man also mentions it. So too does a 1968 issue of American Heritage and the 1973 biography Guerrilla Warrior.

Even a Congressional Hearing in 1945 documented the event: “Not the least discouraging of all efforts against juramentados was carried on by Col. Alexander Rodgers, governor of Jolo. Juramendtados were killed and laid out in the market place with slaughtered pigs placed above them. The Mahommedan abhors pork and contact of Juramentados and pig neutralized the beneficial effects of the rite.”

Although Pershing is not described as directly taking part, he was part of the command and discussed on the same page as Rodgers.

There are many, many more sources. A search for Pershing, pigs, swine, Muslim, or Juramentados (and combinations thereof) produce a lot of results.

When Time produced an article on the issue, they said:

It may have been out of character for Pershing, but it may not have been out of character for other U.S. troops. Trump did hit on an unfortunate truth that the occupation of the Philippines involved deliberate attempts—at least among the ranks—to use religious taboos to intimidate people.

In 1941, TIME ran a letter to the editor from a soldier named J. R. McKey who had served with Pershing in the Philippines decades before. In the letter, McKey describes using pigs in burials to deter Muslim insurgent activities, but does not ascribe the act to Pershing.

The Time article then relates other sources not listed here.

There is plenty of evidence to suggest that such an event took place, regardless if it Pershing was directly involved. Neither Snopes nor the New York Daily News have a basis for their claims, and their responses show a complete lack of integrity and the ability to perform basic research.