Misattributed

Did the actor and film director Ron Howard write an essay on why "I'm a liberal," enumerating 16 key beliefs? No, that's not true: The original 2018 essay, written in the form of an open letter, was published by author Lori Gallagher Witt. Her Facebook post went viral and has since been subjected to several unauthorized revisions and misattributions. In…

Did Elon Musk say two Boeing Starliner astronauts died in space, as a social media post implies? No, that's not true: Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore were shown conducting a spacewalk nearly a month after the post -- and there's no record of Musk ever having made the statements attributed to him in the social media post. On February…

Did Vice President Kamala Harris say "a problem is not a problem" as part of a longer quote in a meme circulating on social media? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for the vice president's office answered "no" by email when Lead Stories asked if the quote was real. Lead Stories could find no video or news articles indicating Harris…

Does a video show authentic footage of a tornado hitting a Florida beach, or Miami, on July 7, 2024? No, that's not true: National Weather Service records did not document any such extreme weather in the entire state of Florida on July 7, 2024. The footage is a combination of digitally created clips and recycled clips from unrelated true events.…

Does a video compilation show Hurricane Beryl in Jamaica on July 3, 2024? No, that's not true: The compilation consists of older, unrelated video clips from intense weather events in other places. None of the footage was shot in Jamaica. The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok on July 3, 2024. It was captioned: Hurricane Beryl Caribbean…

Did Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez say, "The moon is more important than the sun as the moon gives us light at night when it is dark out. The sun only gives us light during the day when it is already light out"? No, that's not true: Lead Stories could not find any evidence that Ocasio-Cortez ever said this. The same purported…

Did Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates suggest on the social media platform X that people who resist a coming "mRNA tsunami" will be punished by exclusion from society? No, that's not true: There's no record the billionaire ever wrote it on his account. The expression "mRNA tsunami" was taken from a different person's public talk, and it was said in a…

Is there a link between the wildfires that burned on Maui, Hawaii, on August 8, 2023, and a sighting of green lights seen on a January 28, 2023, livestream from the Subaru Telescope on top of Mount Mauna Kea, on the "Big Island" of Hawaii? No, that's not true: While a green laser was sighted for a few seconds from…

Did Anheuser-Busch blame Elon Musk for a decline in sales in April and May 2023? No, that's not true: The article attached to this post was originally published on a website that says its satirical articles are "not meant to be taken seriously." There are also no corporate statements or credible independent reporting that support the claim. The claim appeared…

Did a medical expert named Dr. Derek Knauss (or Knaus) prove that 1,500 COVID-19 diagnostic tests did not actually contain traces of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but did test positive for influenza A and B? No, that's not true: Lead Stories found no evidence that any such research has taken place or been published in a reputable scientific journal. Extensive searches…