Fact Check

Did football player Patrick Mahomes reject a "$10 Million Offer" from Elon Musk? No, that's not true: Musk did not make the public statement the story said he did. An AI detector concluded that the text of the story, including bogus quotes, was highly likely to have been generated using AI. It also contained several phrases from an almost identical…

Was a March 26, 2025, car crash in Berlin a premeditated act of terrorism? No, that's not true: The German police told Lead Stories that, as of this writing, there is no evidence to support that theory. The incident involved a teenager who, when stopped by police, attempted to drive away, injuring eight people. The claim appeared in a post…

Does a genuine transcript show what Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said after Representative Jim Himes asked a question about retweeting "posts from individuals affiliated with Russian state media" using her personal account? No, that's not true: The fake transcript starts off with things that were actually said but then adds more questions from a "reporter" who wasn't actually…

Did Beyoncé publicly confirm she will move to Italy because she can't "breathe the same air as Elon Musk"? No, that's not true: An AI generated viral article reused a fake quote previously attributed to Oprah Winfrey in another false story. Neither credible media outlets nor the singer's official pages discussed the purported relocation as of March 26, 2025. The…

Do girls have sperm in their bone marrow that could be used to "make a baby on their own" as is claimed on social media? No, that's not true: Sperm are not found in bone marrow. But, fertility researchers are developing methods to extract stem cells from bone marrow and use complex processes to create sperm-like cells that could be…

Did Vogue magazine publish an article on March 21, 2025, with the headline "Disney Confirms Russian Troll Farms At Heart of Bad Snow White Opening Weekend"? No, that's not true: a fake screenshot shared online was the result of digital manipulation, and used a different Vogue article as its basis. The fake screenshot attributed the invented headline to a non-existent…

Did the U.K. make Islam the "main study" in schools on March 26, 2025? No, that's not true: No credible media outlet reported such a policy. Religious education covering different religions has been part of the national curriculum for decades, and students can opt out of attending those classes. The story appeared in a post (archived here) published on Facebook…

Did Fox News broadcast a segment about a "revolutionary device that's healing the world" named "Tesla Ionic Care" and "backed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and President Donald Trump"? No, that's not true: The TV channel denied that. Three AI detectors showed that the viral video with the Fox News logo contained AI-generated content. The claim appeared in a post…

Did President Donald Trump cancel taxes on all overtime starting Monday, March 31, 2025? No, that's not true: The video used in a social media post making the claim is from a September 12, 2024, campaign rally when Trump vowed to make overtime pay exempt from federal taxes if he were elected. As of March 25, 2025, congressional Republicans were…

Did the U.S. State Department deny Dr. Anthony Fauci's passport renewal application in March 2025? No, that's not true: The original source of that claim about the former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was an article on a website that describes its own content as "fiction" and "satire." The article attributed quotations to two fictional…

Did hundreds of bears block vehicle traffic into Yellowstone Park in March of 2025 by sitting, standing and lying down on the entry road, as was claimed on social media? No, that's not true: As of this writing, most Yellowstone Park roads were still closed for winter. The regional press that cover the park have not written about what would…

Did a federal judge named Howard Gates have a verbal battles with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in 2025, culminating in his dramatic courtroom arrest at her behest? No, that's not true: the video, and others like it, were no more than fan fiction and did not describe real events. Lead Stories found no record of a federal judge named…

Does the mugshot of a weeping teenager show identify someone arrested in connection with one of the March, 2025 attacks by vandals on Tesla dealerships and Tesla vehicles? No, that's not true: the mugshot was published nine years earlier. It appeared in 2016 reports about the arrest of Anthony J. Zingale, of Grafton, WI, for alleged sexual assault of a…

Does a viral post prove that 84% of electronic devices spotted at the joint Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rally in Colorado can be definitively linked to Kamala Harris campaign events and protests for other causes? No, that's not true: The post didn't offer a replicable analysis of the data. Two organizations mentioned in it among the supposed sources said…

Are two homicide suspects named Seth Chancey and Madison Smith on the run for the killing of 10-month-old Derrick Taylor as of March 24, 2025? No, that's not true: The posts are fake, part of a bait-and-switch scam aimed at luring social media users to ad posts designed to harvest personal and financial information. These posts use mugshots taken from…

Are two homicide suspects named Shaila Bradshaw and Tyler Chapman on the run for the killing of 8-month-old Marquel Smith as of March 24, 2025? No, that's not true: The posts are fake, part of a bait-and-switch scam aimed at luring social media users to ads designed to harvest personal and financial information. These posts use mugshots taken from posts…

Was former U.S. president Barack Obama caught "laundering money through the Cayman Islands" for private gain in March 2025, as a social media post claims? No, that's not true: The viral post misrepresented the words of a guest on the Joe Rogan podcast. That person was talking about U.S. government funding of a "Cuban Twitter", not about Obama's direct involvement…

Did basketball coach Dawn Staley reject a $10 million donation from Elon Musk in March 2025? No, that's not true: Neither Musk nor Staley made any public statement about any donation. An AI detector concluded that the text of the story, including bogus quotes, was high likely to have been generated using AI. The story originated in a March 23,…

Did a video shared in March 2025 authentically show a teacher ordering a student to leave her classroom because he was wearing a MAGA hat? No, that's not true: the video in question was no more than a sketch. The TikTok account that posted it has a history of publishing short skits featuring the same actors shown in the fake…

Does a video clip authentically show DOGE employees breaking into government offices, with one of them saying "ChatGPT could do all your jobs"? No, that's not true: The viral clip was taken from a video from Youtube channel that publishes scripted prank videos. The title of the original video called it a "fake DOGE prank". The clip was uploaded in…