Does a viral image show a real post by President Donald Trump in which he speaks about Jane Goodall, her family and various apes? No, that's not true: The fake image appeared after there was controversy over a post Trump did make in which Barack and Michelle Obama were shown as apes. However, the Goodall post did not appear on…
Did Jimmy Kimmel kick Clint Eastwood off his show in April 2025? No, that's not true: Searches across the website of ABC, which airs the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show, demonstrated that Eastwood was not a guest between January 1, and April 18, 2025. Posts about the purported controversy used what appeared to be AI-generated narration and offered no footage of…
Did White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt kick "The View" host Whoopi Goldberg off the show after "heated clash on Live TV"? No, that's not true: The story narrated in a viral video was likely written by AI, according to online detection tools. As of February 24, 2025, there is no evidence that Goldberg had been fired from the daily…
Did actor Denzel Washington drop out of a $500 million project with Netflix, saying, "The company has gone woke"? No, that's not true: The report first appeared on a satirical website known for publishing made-up content. Washington's public relations representative told Lead Stories that the report is a "complete fabrication." The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook…
Did movie star Clint Eastwood return all six of his Oscars and denounce Hollywood as "morally bankrupt?" No, that's not true: The account that made the claim is part of a network of self-described "parody, satire and tomfoolery" websites that completely make up stories. Eastwood has only won five Academy Awards and there are no reputable news outlets reporting that…
Did Hollywood director Mel Gibson and actor Mark Wahlberg "join hands to create a non-woke film production studio," as a post on Instagram claims? No, that's not true: The meme image and caption that make this claim were taken word for word from an article published by a self-described satirical website. None of the website's content is real, according to…
Is Academy Award-winning actor/director Clint Eastwood on life support in a California hospital after the "deadly ligma virus" spread through his body? No, that's not true: Ligma is not a real disease, and the purported hospital source in the story is fictitious, according to a hospital spokeswoman. The "virus" began as an internet hoax in 2018 when it was said…
The celebrity death hoax has long been a clickbait staple, but recently one network has taken it to extremes, using scores of websites to host its content and an automated army of bots to push the links into Facebook groups. Many Facebook users and group administrators have noticed a sharp increase in spam postings of false death hoaxes. Examples of…
Does this post lead to an article about some type of legal issue concerning an actor? Did the actor lend their name and endorsement to a brand of CBD gummies as "the ultimate pain relief solution"? No, that's not true: This clickbait teaser does not deliver the article that is promised, but to a deceptive website spoofing NBC News. The…
Was John Travolta found dead from apparent suicide after his wife's death? No, that's not true: This death hoax is one of many produced by a complex scheme coming from the Philippines that drives web traffic by tricking people into sharing a link to the scam in order to continue watching a video.The false story originated shortly after the public…
Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet.
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