under growing scrutiny. tom foreman reports. >> reporter: in the final weeks. of the raging election, stunning news. pope francis endorses donald trump, an fbi linked to hillary clinton's e-mail is found dead, and a person is paid $3,500 to protest trump. finally, the truth comes out, his son tweets. the problem, those stories were all flat out lies. fake news, which media analysts say hit this election like no other. according to one analysis, even being shared more than legitimate news stories. >> we have an epidemic of false information racing around, using social networks as the accelerant. >> here's one. >> you have sacrificed nothing. >> reporter: when the muslim family of the slain u.s. soldier grabbed headlines by criticizing donald trump, this story soon appeared claiming they were paid almost $400,000 by the clinton