pseudofact

plural pseudofacts

1. Something that seems to be a fact, but is not

   It is argued that the conclusion of previous research efforts that class voting in Canada is virtually nonexistent is a pseudofact stemming from theoretical and methodological problems.

   1981, United States Political Science Documents, page 311

   1 more example

   The film complicates matters by casting Christine Hebert (a sometime underground filmmaker in her own right) as Pizzorno, with Moullet playing himself, thereby juxtaposing pseudofiction with pseudofact in a way that undermines the rhetorical strategies of both, leaving only a sweet, tragicomic pathos as residue.

   1988 February 26, Jonathan Rosenbaum, “Form Counts”, in Chicago Reader