Entertainment

Did the COVID-19 vaccine cause Canadian reporter Jessica Robb to stumble on air? No, there's no evidence that's true: Robb, a CTV News journalist who appeared to suffer a medical emergency while reporting live on air, has said that what happened was "in no way related to the COVID-19 vaccine." She added: "While I will not share private medical information…

Is the television ratings and marketing company Nielsen offering $2,000 in financial assistance to consumers who sign up for downloads and survey participation? No, that's not true: The claim uses a domain address different from Nielsen's, and the link in the post that promises financial help does not lead to an official Nielsen website. The claim appeared on Facebook on…

Did Alyssa Milano's "temper tantrum" over Elon Musk cost her $13 million? No, that's not true: This satirical article was published by a website connected to the satire network, America's Last Line of Defense, which clearly identifies its content as untrue and not to be taken seriously. The story appeared in an article published by dunning-kruger-times.com on January 8, 2023,…

Did Elon Musk buy the ABC Network and cancel its daytime talk show "The View"? No, that's not true: This is a fabricated story that originated on a satire website run by Christopher Blair, who plainly discloses that "everything on this website is fiction." The story has been copied and reposted to another site without that disclaimer. The article from…

Did the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launch an anti-smoking effort with a video ad that uses the tagline "It's Gay to Smoke"? No, that's not true: The video is from a fake story created more than a decade ago by the satire news site The Onion, and the CDC told Lead Stories the agency had never produced…

Did President Joe Biden blame Elton John for the U.S. spending taxpayer money to "fight AIDS"? No, that's not true: There is missing context to this video. A transcript of this event shows that Biden is praising John. Both the audience and John applaud Biden's sentiments. The claim appeared on Instagram on January 1, 2023. The caption read: Flashback to…

Did a "deep state" conspiracy lead to Romania's arrest of former kickboxing champion and online celebrity Andrew Tate on December 29, 2022? No, that's not true: Romanian authorities have told Lead Stories that Tate was arrested following an investigation that began in April 2022. No credible evidence exists to support the claim of a "deep state" conspiracy, which was published…

Did Romanian authorities free social-media influencer Andrew Tate from jail two days after arresting him in connection with human-trafficking charges? No, that's not true: A spokeswoman for Romanian law enforcement told Lead Stories that, as of January 3, 2023, Tate remained behind bars. Tate's attorney confirmed that status. The claim appeared in a Facebook video post on December 31, 2022.…

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…

Did Chuck Norris announce "devastating news" on or before December 26, 2022? No, that's not true: A Facebook post that claimed the martial artist announced "devastating news" and implied he suffered a health crisis appears to be nothing more than a clickbait scam leading social media users to an article that makes no mention of Norris having suffered health concerns.…

Did Elon Musk file a billion dollars in lawsuits against "totally unprepared" Kathy Griffin? No, that's not true: The site that posted the story and a "Fact Check" follow-up is satirical. There are clearly marked disclaimers on the website that state everything on the site is a satirical work of fiction. The claim appeared as an article (archived here) where…

Did Elon Musk announce, as of December 24, 2022, that he is running for president? No, that's not true: As one of the most-reported-on persons of 2022, any such announcement would have been a top story for dozens of credible professional news organizations. No such reporting existed as of December 27, 2022. Nor had Musk, who owns Twitter and uses…

Did Twitter CEO Elon Musk purchase former President Donald Trump's Truth Social in December 2022? No, that's not true: A video shared on Facebook claimed in the headline that Musk had bought the social media platform, but a voiceover narration in the video made no mention of such an event. The headline was merely clickbait. At the time of writing,…

Does a video shared on social media show an authentic "human clone robot factory"? No, that's not true: The video shared on Instagram and Facebook in December 2022 showed a prosthetics studio used in the making of props for television and movies, as documents featured in the clip prove. The claim originated on Instagram on December 17, 2022, in a…

Did Michelle Obama's doctor go on the record about the former first lady using a urinal during the 2008 presidential campaign, thereby proving that she is a man? No, that's not true: The article making this claim originated in 2017 on a now-defunct satirical website called America's Last Line of Defense. Clearly marked disclaimers on the original website, run by…

Has actor Michael J. Fox passed away? No, as of December 20, 2022, that's not true: His publicist told Lead Stories on December 20 that Fox is alive. Additionally, Fox's social media accounts, as well as his foundation, have not reported his death -- nor have any credible news organizations. The claim appeared on Facebook on December 19, 2022. The…

Is it true that "Yellowstone officials just closed down the park & said the volcanic uplift is rising" on December 18, 2022? No, that's not true: A video that made this claim reused shots from a fictional movie that has been available on YouTube since at least 2021. Officials say the park is open, and the U.S. Geological Survey says…

Did Elon Musk tweet, "You know, in some parts of the world, journalists get murdered for crossing the wrong people. Banning the reporters I don't like from my own platform feels like a pretty innocuous alternative to me" on December 16, 2022, the day after several journalists were banned from Twitter? No, that's not true: This screenshot of a tweet,…

Did the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, commonly known as Harry and Meghan, accidentally release a professional photo that was so badly edited that it revealed that their "invisible" daughter Lilibet is not a real child? No, that's not true: This clickbait headline plays off a conspiracy trope that Meghan's pregnancies and children are not real. There is no indication…

Does a trending video show a man addressing his son before giving the child "his own heart"? No, that's not true: The video is a piece of acting that recreates a monologue from the 2002 American drama "John Q." The claim appeared in a video on Facebook on December 4, 2022. : Father gives his own heart to sick Son…