Endorsement

Did Stephen Colbert record and post a real video discussing the firing of CBS and 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley? No, that's not true: The video, which looked similar to an unrelated, real video posted by Colbert, was labeled as "AI-generated" on social media. Additionally, there were no trustworthy reports of Colbert's alleged comments. The claim appeared in a video…

Did Neil Diamond, Eminem, Coco Gauff or any of a long list of celebrities donate $5 million to provide emergency relief and medical aid following the tragic elementary school strike in southern Iran? No, that's not true: The false claim that at least 20 sports, entertainment and political celebs made such contributions was created and distributed by a spam factory…

Did Travis Kelce, Jelly Roll, Bruce Springsteen, Caitlin Clark and a 12 other celebrities say that President Trump was "a vicious old bastard draining America's soul after the Born-in-America Act"? No, that's not true: The claim that at least 17 different sports stars and entertainers made that identical statement was made up by a Vietnamese-based spam factory that uses artificial…

Did Barack Obama say that he wants to return to the White House in 2028 as president through "legal avenues" or as a "proxy candidate"? No, that's not true: Contrary to the posts citing his "exclusive interview on a major news network" on December 7, 2025, the former president did not talk to any TV stations on that day. He…

Did Pete Buttigieg stand at the podium at a public town hall meeting with Joe Biden joining by live feed, and announce he's running for President in 2028? No, that's not true: At the time the rumor was posted, no news outlets had carried the story of such an announcement by the former Secretary of Transportation. There were no news…

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…