&Quot;January 6, 2021&Quot;

Did NPR publish an article on the morning of January 6, 2021, about Trump supporters storming the U.S. Capitol and clashing with police before any clashes with police had occurred? No, that's not true: This intentionally deceptive post focuses on the National Public Radio article's original publication timestamp while cropping off the well-marked notice that the article had been updated…

Does HIV cause a skin condition? Yes, that's sometimes true, but HIV-negative people also have this skin condition. A reverse image search on Google showed Lead Stories that the skin condition seen in the Facebook post below is called atopic dermatitis, or eczema. Dermatologists told Lead Stories that the photo in the Facebook post should not be a representative of…

Was a green screen used to produce one of the more memorable images of rioters inside the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021 -- with actors posing in another location and superimposed onto still and video images of the riot? No, that's not true: An image circulating online is a photoshopped prank composed of two different images after-the-fact. The…

Did Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tweet that people should not be convicted on "flimsy" circumstantial evidence, such as "having a similar gait," "owning the identical shoes" or "being in DC and not having any alibi for that time"? No, that's not true: Greene's spokesperson told Lead Stories that the tweet was fake. There is no evidence that the tweet came…

Does the first episode of "COVIDLAND" prove its claims that hospitals were not taxed by COVID-19 caseloads, death statistics were inflated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and that the PCR test is unable to detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus accurately? No, that's not true: Each of these claims, woven into the theory that a global cabal faked a…

Did U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert live-tweet Speaker Nancy Pelosi's whereabouts during the January 6, 2021, insurrection? Not exactly: Boebert tweeted when Pelosi was removed from the House chamber, but did not tweet where Pelosi was specifically located or headed in a building with 540 rooms and 850 doorways. The claim appeared in this meme on multiple social media accounts, including…

Was Washington, D.C., Metropolitan police officer Michael Fanone the person carrying a Confederate flag during the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection? No, that's not true: Although photos of Fanone and the person carrying the flag bear a strong resemblance, Fanone was working to deter the chaos that day while Kevin Seefried, the man who is alleged to have carried…

Did Facebook and Instagram reinstate former President Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts on June 2, 2021? No, that's not true: There was no change in the status of Trump's social media accounts, Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said in a tweet on June 2, 2021. Trump's ability to post new content was suspended by Facebook in the wake of the…

Could Joe Biden be legally ousted from the White House and Donald Trump returned to the presidency before the next election if fraud were found to have put Biden there? No, that's not true: A sitting U.S. president can only be removed through impeachment under Section 4 of Article Two of the U.S. Constitution, death or a declaration of disability…

Did a surgeon from Ohio die shortly after receiving the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine? There is no evidence that Dr. Thomas Lee Flanigan's death on April 27, 2021, was related to the COVID-19 vaccine he had received 12 weeks earlier. The cause of his death has not been made public. Flanigan's death was reported by several news outlets…