&Quot;Los Angeles&Quot;

Did Barbra Streisand just announce a massive donation while accepting a "Lifetime Achievement Award" at a Los Angeles gala in front of various tech titans, billionaires and powerful people? No, that's not true: The exact same story, often accompanied by an image or a mention of Mark Zuckerberg, has been posted about dozens of celebrities by a network of sites…

Did the FBI discover a secret tunnel under Rob Reiner's Brentwood mansion? No, that's not true: There is no credible information to support this claim. The day after Rob Reiner and his wife Michele were murdered, clickbait videos began to surface on YouTube claiming the FBI found a tunnel under their home. Some of these videos had titles identical to…

Did President Trump really post a message on Truth Social saying Rob Reiner and his wife Michele were murdered "reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS?" Yes, he did: The post appeared on the president's timeline at…

Did the Los Angeles Police Department charge "Daniel Reed" for sexual harassment for grabbing "Jessica Moore" to pull her back from the path of a speeding car? No, that's not true: The video showing a man grabbing a woman before she is hit by a car is from a 2020 incident in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Instagram video that carries the…

Is there a rising number of $2.8 million statues erected or underway to honor people like Dolly Parton, George Strait, Bruce Springsteen, Bill Clinton, Shania Twain, Jimmy Page, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Waltz King André Rieu, and others? No, that's not true: Multiple social media posts using nearly identical language and the $2.8M figure have cranked out the story to appeal…

This is what fact checkers call a "prebunk." A prebunk is like a debunk (another word for fact check), only it's an advance notice of an anticipated false claim. This article is intended to inoculate you from future outbreaks of a specific type of false claims about your favorite entertainment celebrities, sports stars, and politicians. We call this "Viet Spam"…

Was Fox News host Brett Baier correct when he declared Chicago has "the highest murder rate of all the big cities" during an interview with Illinois Governor JB Pritzker? Yes, if you compare US cities with official populations over 1 million. Pritzker asserted Chicago ranks below 30th, but did not provide a citation for that number. Lead Stories found that…

Does a video clip show a young woman who had lung surgery because of energy drinks who will never be able to speak again? No, that's not true: The video footage was taken from another TikTok account where it was presented with no mention of energy drinks. The original @hey_itsabs video caption said that her lung had been punctured by…

Did a woman arrive from Tokyo, Japan, at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City with a passport of a nonexistent country named "Torenza", as viral videos and text posts claim? No, that's not true: The viral videos reused old footage. It came from a TV show about airline workers that aired on cable in the U.S. in the…

Is Alisa Kasmer, the woman who posted a long message on Facebook attacking Stephen Miller, really Miller's cousin? Yes, that's true: Kasmer's post claimed that she babysat Miller and he is her first cousin. Lead Stories researched the White House Deputy Chief of Staff's family tree and confirmed that Kasmer, 43, is the daughter of Miller's paternal aunt. Photographs included…