Earthquake

Did either Karoline Leavitt, Sunny Hostin, Whoopi Goldberg, or Joy Behar say that Paul McCartney, Phil Collins, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, or a dozen other major artists is "just a musician"? No, that's not true: The claim was made about at least 16 different entertainers in posts published on dozens of fake Facebook fan pages aimed at American and European…

Did Karoline Leavitt dismiss various celebrities, saying "complex social policy" was "out of their league" and dismissing them as just a singer, musician, actor or comedian? No, that's not true: The claim about a televised confrontation in a TV studio was made about at least 26 different people in posts published on dozens of fake Facebook fan pages aimed at…

Was former first lady Michelle Obama videotaped executing a barbed takedown of Donald Trump on the 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' show in the fall of 2025? No, that's not true: As of November 12, 2025, no such video recording existed. Michelle Obama hadn't been on Kimmel's show for years at that time. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published…

Did Donald Trump (or another famous person) dismiss the achievements of Dick Van Dyke (or some other celebrity) by saying, "He's just a dancer." (or some other talent)? No, that's not true: This story about a broadcast studio turning into a "televised earthquake" is nothing but a formulaic structure to pair the names and pictures of some famous people for…

Did singer Pink publish a defense of Jimmy Kimmel on social media that read "Freedom of speech cannot be bought with money; it is the voice of the people."? No, that's not true: No such post appeared on any of the social media channels of the singer. The story was promoted by a Facebook page managed from abroad. The claim…

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 Singer Patti LaBelle silence Karoline Leavitt using just "seven words" in a viral video clip that was recorded off live TV? No, that's not true: The story was made up by a foreign clickbait farm, online searches brought up no such video. Very similar stories using the names of other celebrities have been spread by spammy networks like these…

Did a California aquarium collapse, killing 50 people, as was claimed in a viral Instagram reel? No, that's not true: A disaster of that magnitude and novelty would have been a worldwide news story and there is no record of such an event in news publications in or out of California. The Instagram account that posted the video consists of…

Does a viral video show tsunami waves caused by a July 29, 2025 earthquake off Russia's eastern coast hitting California's coast? No, that's not true: The Los Angeles Times described the tsunami waves as "modest". California emergency management officials reported none of the kind of flooding and destruction shown in the viral video and had lifted warnings by midmorning on…

Does a video show five beluga whales that washed ashore in Kamchatka, Russia on July 29, 2025, the day of an 8.8 magnitude earthquake? No, that's not true: On August 13, 2023 a Kamchatka news outlet posted a longer version of this video on YouTube. That video shows the successful effort by Kamchatka fishermen to help the stranded whales until…