Endorsement

Did Rachel Maddow, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel just team up and launch a newsroom named "The Independent Desk"? No, that's not true: The story appeared on a recently launched website that does not list owners or publishers and it just adds Jimmy Kimmel to an older false story about Maddow and Colbert. The new story also contains verifiably untrue…

Did country music legend George Strait reject a $500 million deal from Elon Musk to endorse Tesla? No, that's not true: This is a fake story designed to get people to click on a link to a website. This identical fake story, with the same fake quote, keeps getting recycled with different celebrity names attached. The fake story appeared in…

Did Kid Rock endorse California Governor Gavin Newsom in mid-August 2025? No, that's not true: The origin of the viral image is satirical. The picture was a parody of Donald Trump's post from the previous year, when he said he accepted Taylor Swift's nonexistent endorsement from an AI generated image. What looked like a statement appeared in a post (archived…

Did actor Morgan Freeman "mercilessly" lecture White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on the topics of racism and inequality on live TV? No, that's not true: The story about the fictional TV-studio encounter was published by an anonymously registered website that listed no authors or publishers. Despite claims the encounter caused "a storm on social media" no actual media reported…

Did American Idol winner Jamal Roberts turn down a Tesla ad from Elon Musk in an upcoming music video? No, that's not true: A viral article about such a rejection did not name any verifiable sources or offer any quotes to back that up. It also claimed there had been a "media frenzy" about the issue but no media outlets…

Did basketball star Caitlin Clark publicly refuse to advertise Tesla on her Indiana Fever jersey in May 2025? No, that's not true: A post promoting that rumor contained several fabricated quotes attributed to both Clark and Tesla owner Elon Musk. We found no corroboration for the story, or the claim that Clark had threatened to reveal damaging secrets about Musk.…

Did Elon Musk announce that he had acquired MSNBC for $900 million to "put an end to toxic programming?" No, that's not true: A search of Musk's X account did not show this announcement from him on the days leading up to publication of the claim. As of March 14, 2025, no reliable news outlets were reporting what would have…

Was the TV show "The View" officially cancelled after decades on air, as a viral article claimed? No, that's not true: The story appears to have been written using AI and was published on an anonymously registered website that lists no owners or publishers. There have been no official announcements on ABC's website regarding a cancellation of The View. The…

Did Carrie Underwood win a billion-dollar defamation lawsuit against "The View" or did she even sue them? No, that's not true: The story alleging there was a lawsuit involving comments on "The View" about Underwood's performance at President Trump's inauguration was put out by a number of clickbait channels on YouTube, but it was not backed up by any sources…

Is a viral article claiming country singer Chris Stapleton filed an official objection to Beyoncé winning a Grammy based on actual news events? No, that's not true: There is no record of Stapleton saying "Eveп she admits this is пot a coυпtry albυm." as the story claimed. Stapleton's social media profiles and website do not mention any such objection and…