California

Did an elderly man kill two thieves inside his home and is he now being sued by their families for $1 million in damages? No, that's not true: This story is made up, designed to get social media engagement by causing outrage. There is no real incident matching the provided details. The video is illustrated with clips drawn from a…

Is the Securities and Exchange Commission investigating 10 Democrats, including former President Joe Biden, for fraud and insider trading? No, that's not true: There is no evidence the SEC is investigating any of the 10 people whose images are included in the post. The claim originated from a satirical Facebook page that carried a satire disclaimer. The owner of the…

Has Preston Kennedy, the 43-year-old son of Senator John Nealy Kennedy of Louisiana, been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer? No, that's not true: Sen. Kennedy's son is 29, not 43. He was born six years after his parents' 1990 marriage. There are no reports of a cancer diagnosis on Kennedy's social media timelines or in the news media. The…

Does Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani have a plan to require all New York students to learn Arabic numerals? No, that's not true: Viral posts making that claim are satirical in nature because Arabic numerals are already widely used everywhere in New York and the rest of the United States. The joke plays on the ignorance of certain audiences not knowing "Arabic…

Did the Justice Department launch a grand jury investigation into California Governor Gavin Newsom, accused by critics of violating the Logan Act by going to a climate conference in Brazil? No, that's not true: The story's source was a fictional character, "US Attorney for North-Central California Joe Barron". The claim originated from a page warning its readers that nothing it…

Is a video of U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff, a Georgia Democrat, saying he voted to keep the government shut down because he could never say no to Chuck Schumer, real? No, that's not true: A small disclaimer at the bottom of the video acknowledges that it was made by an artificial intelligence tool. The video, which was shared on the…

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…

Did an exit poll show that 92% of California voters thought Proposition 50 was a ballot measure to impeach President Trump? No, that's not true: The claim originated from a post on a satiric X account on which the original poster of the 92% claim repeatedly made it clear he was being sarcastic. There is no publicly available exit poll…

Were California Proposition 50 votes counted and reported on the day after Election Day but not the results for a 1% tax vote in Shasta County as a person claimed in a viral video? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for the county election board confirmed to Lead Stories the results of the election in Shasta County, for both Prop…

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"…