Brian Stelter

Did the U.S. military convict and execute Brian Stelter, a former CNN host, on September 20, 2022? No, that's not true: These claims were posted on a satirical website. Lead Stories had already debunked the site's prior claim that Stelter was arrested by the U.S. military on August 30, 2022, which renders this claim even more impossible. Further, the Posse…

Did the U.S. military arrest Brian Stelter, a former CNN host, on August 27, 2022? No, that's not true: "This story is completely false," a duty officer at the Pentagon told Lead Stories. The Posse Comitatus Act forbids the U.S. military from arresting citizens. In addition, these claims were posted on a satirical website. The claim appeared in an article…

Does this video show "the media" is colluding to control a narrative by giving anchors identical scripts? No, that's not true: The video, from 2018, shows how conservative-leaning Sinclair Broadcast Group was found to be requiring its TV news anchors to recite the same promo script. These widely distributed scripts were contained to Sinclair and were not aired by anchors…

Did CNN host Brian Stelter say that President Donald Trump is a "destructive cult leader"? No, that's not true: A psychologist who studies cults made the comment while being interviewed by Stelter on CNN's "Reliable Sources" program. Stelter did not repeat it, but questioned the guest about how he could justify and prove the statement. The story originated from an…

Did President Trump's team appear to delete tweets where he used "invaders" to describe immigrants in the wake of the El Paso and Dayton attacks? No, that's not true: Tweets using the words "invaders" and "invasion" remained on the president's Twitter timeline a day after mass casualty shootings of August 3 and 4, 2019. The false claim originated in various…

Do Jeffrey Epstein's private jet flight logs list Joe Biden, John McCain, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Pope Francis, four CNN Anchors, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and two dozen other well-known political leaders as passengers on the accused sex trafficker's "Lolita Express?" No, that's not true: The list that has spread on social media is fake, with the exception of…

Update: Yes, of course this was an April Fools joke :-) For years we here at Lead Stories have put the term "F*ke N*ws" in every headline but it is time to put a stop to the practice. For a long time academic experts like Claire Wardle have argued against using the phrase because it simply covers too many meanings…

Donald Trump's top campaign aide has fallen for a hoax story that claims a man was paid $3,500 to protest against Donald Trump at a recent rally in Phoenix, Arizona. The bogus report was published by a fake website that mimics ABC News, but is not the real thing. But Trump's controversial campaign manager Corey Lewandowski either can't tell the…