Blue Feed

Did the chief executive officer (CEO) of Spotify offer Tucker Carlson $129 million to host a podcast? No, that's not true: This story originated from a website that clearly labels itself fiction/satire aimed at trolling conservatives. No corporate statement or credible independent reporting supports the claim. The claim appeared in an article published by the Patriot Party Press on April…

Did a public high school in Georgia implement a "business model" assignment in which students had to devise ways of "raising and eating human babies to solve the world hunger problem?" No, that's not true: At two points in a video interview shared to social media, it was stated that the supposed business model was meant as a high school…

Did a military tribunal sentence Liz Cheney, a former U.S. representative, to hang? No, that's not true: A Pentagon duty officer told Lead Stories this claim "is false." Also, it was made on a self-described satirical website whose disclaimer says it publishes articles for "entertainment purposes." The claim appeared in an article published by Real Raw News on April 23,…

Does BlackRock own Dominion Voting Systems? No, that's not true: A BlackRock spokesperson told Lead Stories the asset management/investment company owns part of Dominion Resources Inc., a completely different company, in the energy sector. The similarly-named voting software and ballot equipment company, Dominion Voting Systems, is owned by Staple Street Capital and its employees. Dominion Voting Systems sued Fox News…

Would a bill in the Florida legislature impose the death penalty for admitting children to drag shows? No, that's not true: Bills before lawmakers in the Sunshine State would make it illegal to take children to drag shows, and would also impose the death penalty for certain sexual offenders against children, but those are two separate pieces of legislation. Taking…

Does a map circulating on social media prove 3-year-old children can get a gender-affirming surgery in the United States? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that such surgeries have ever been performed on patients of this age, and the existing standards for gender-affirming care do not recommend any medical interventions before a person reaches puberty. The claim appeared…

Did President Joe Biden "push away" or snub U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak when Biden arrived in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on April 11, 2023? No, that's not true: The video in this post has been digitally edited. It was shortened to seem as if Biden did not recognize Sunak and instead mistook a British military member in uniform as the…

Did then-presidential candidate Joe Biden claim that the biggest problem during the Revolutionary War was the fact that they did not have airports? No, that's not true: Biden was referring to something then-President Donald Trump had said in a speech. The Facebook video where this claim originated is misrepresenting Biden's speech by leaving out the context. The claim appeared on…

Do photos of British Passport #84764 issued in Nairobi, Kenya, on April 29, 1959 to Mr. Barack Hussein Obama prove that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya and "was thus a FAKE and ILLEGITIMATE President"? No, that's not true: A father and son both had the same name, Barack Hussein Obama. These photos posted by Malik Obama, the older…

Did Rep. Jim Jordan slap former Special Counsel Robert Mueller during a congressional hearing? No, that's not true: The social media post making the claim provides no proof. More importantly, such an assault on Mueller by Jordan never happened. The claim appeared in a post on Facebook on April 10, 2023. The title of the video read: 'YOU ARE LYING'…

Did the expression "woke" originate from the phrase "willingly overlooking known evil"? No, that's not true: The term "stay woke" was first used in a 1938 song by blues musician Lead Belly about Black teenagers accused of raping white women, according to a linguistics professor. Usage of the expression "woke" to indicate awareness of injustices dates to the Black labor…

Did the world suddenly stop having new COVID-19 variants after Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), retired at the end of 2022? No, that's not true: More than a year before his retirement, the most recent variant of COVID, Omicron, was identified in Botswana and South Africa. Many Omicron subvariants have…

Does a video clip on social media contain genuine audio of President Joe Biden stepping on a cat that squeals in response? No, that's not true: According to an official White House transcript, Biden stumbled over a floor wire at a New York campaign rally -- not a cat. A review of the video from which the post was created…

Does a video show President Joe Biden being led into a room by a blind man? No, that's not true: Biden was escorting a blind man into an event in Kansas City, Missouri, allowing the man to hold his arm as they were ushered to their places for a speech by Biden. The claim appeared in a video (archived here)…

Did actor Morgan Freeman make a video criticizing President Joe Biden for talking about ice cream? No, that's not true: This is a deepfake of Freeman. Someone has put on a filter that looks like Freeman's face while also trying to speak like him. The TikTok account that originally posted this video had "Celebrity Impressionist" in the bio. The claim…

Was a "little boy" in female clothes videotaped while traveling on the same plane as President Joe Biden? No, that's not true: A video making that claim on social media shows Biden's granddaughter Natalie Biden going down steps from the aircraft behind her grandfather. The claim appeared in a reel published on Facebook on March 15, 2023. The clip had…

Did White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre say that the United States is "deeply concerned" about China and Brazil switching to national currencies when conducting business with each other? No, that's not true: A search of sections of the White House website covering "Statements and Releases" and "Press Briefings" produced no such statements by Jean-Pierre or any other White House…

Was Jacob Chansley, the Capitol rioter better known as the "QAnon Shaman," released early from prison to a halfway house "following video evidence showing that January 6 [2021] was a hoax" and an "inside job"? No, that's not true: The Bureau of Prisons told Lead Stories that Chansley was transferred from a federal correctional institution to community confinement on March…

Did Democrats dress "a black guy as a white supremacist" to cast a bad light on supporters of former President Donald Trump? No, that's not true: The picture, which shows five people standing side by side with tiki torches, is a 2021 demonstration by a group of anti-Trump Republicans mimicking a 2017 rally of white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia, that…

Does this photo show the Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale holding a protest sign that says, "TRANS RIGHTS ...OR ELSE?" with a graphic of five long guns in the colors of the trans flag stripes? No, that's not true: This photo was taken at a protest in Oklahoma City at about 11 a.m. CDT on March 27, 2023, the same…