Did McDonald's in Japan run an ad campaign that featured a shirtless Ronald McDonald in red briefs overflowing with french fries? No, that's not true: In 2019, this french fry ad was promoting a much smaller Japanese restaurant chain called Yotteba. The artwork at the center of the campaign, "Sexy Ronald," was created in 2011 by a Brooklyn artist who…

Did a traffic reporter "melt down" on live TV, first correcting the anchors' pronunciation of his name and then expressing annoyance to the news anchors about how live roadside traffic reporting is obsolete? No, that's not true: This is a comedy skit by John Crist. The video opens with a short clip from a real channel 2 Houston newscast. The…

Was a 4-year-old child kidnapped in an Omaha Sam's Club, only to be found assaulted in the store's bathroom stall? No, that's not true: There is no evidence the incident took place and police in Omaha have flagged the oft-recycled story as an urban legend. The claim, which has appeared on the Internet with varying details for at least two…

Does a video of a blank product insert inside a box of the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine show anything unexpected or untoward? No, that's not true: The insert's front and back panels were intentionally left blank, according to the makers of the vaccine. There is a QR code, as well as a website, on the back of the box…

Did a surgeon from Ohio die shortly after receiving the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine? There is no evidence that Dr. Thomas Lee Flanigan's death on April 27, 2021, was related to the COVID-19 vaccine he had received 12 weeks earlier. The cause of his death has not been made public. Flanigan's death was reported by several news outlets…

Kaiyah Clarke is a fact-checker at Lead Stories. She is a graduate of Florida A&M University with a B.S. in Broadcast Journalism and is currently pursuing an M.S. in Journalism. When she is not fact-checking or researching counter-narratives in society, she is often found reading a book on the New York Times Bestseller List.…

Does a "live" video currently streaming on Facebook show a gas station explosion happening right now? No, that's not true: The video appears to be a looping piece of video footage taken in 2014 of an incident at an Exxon Mobile station in Makhachkala near the Caspian Sea in Russia. The video appeared in a post (archived here) published by…

Did Norwegian scientists say it was less risky to catch COVID-19 than to take the AstraZeneca vaccine? No, that's not true: The Norwegian Institute of Public Health believes the AstraZeneca is a good vaccine, but since Norway has a low infection rate, its younger population can wait for a vaccine alternative. The claim originated in an article published by Sputnik…

Was there a coup at the Pentagon? Were the Joint Chiefs of Staff overthrown? No, that's not true: A Pentagon spokesperson denied the claim, which was based on a single purported "confidential" source. The story was published by a website known for printing unsubstantiated and false allegations, many of which Lead Stories has debunked before. The claims appeared in an…

Did Pepsi sell more products than Coca-Cola during the April, 2021 boycott declared by conservatives to punish the company for criticizing Georgia's new voting restrictions? Did Delta cancel 100 flights because of the boycotts? No, that's not true: according to Coca-Cola and PepsiCo's first quarter earnings reports, Coca-Cola earned almost $600 million more than PepsiCo in the first quarter. Delta…