From Alex Jones to David Icke, conspiracy theories have been a frequent topic of debate in recent years. However, it is not clear what separates conspiracy theories from mainstream news. I compare 25 conspiracy news sites to 25 mainstream news sites across two studies. In Study 1, I examine the language used in conspiracy and mainstream news sites with linguistic and topic analysis and find that conspiracy and mainstream news have different linguistic signatures. In Study 2, I ask 200 people to rate headlines from conspiracy and mainstream news sites on a variety of dimensions to see if they differ in dimensions like fearmongering, political ideology, and perceived veracity. I also examine how demographic variables (e.g., political orientation) affect their perception of the veracity and conspiratorial nature of headlines from both conspiracy and mainstream sites. Liberals perceive headlines from conservative-leaning sites as less true and more conspiratorial, and conservatives perceive headlines from liberal-leaning sites as less true and more conspiratorial, regardless of whether the headlines were from mainstream or conspiratorial sites.