News Punch

Did the Make-A-Wish Foundation refuse to grant a 4-year-old cancer patient a wish because he is not vaccinated? That's not true: The charity's medical team had ruled out air travel and large group settings for unvaccinated and critically ill children, which is why the charity's staff asked the boy to make a wish other than flying his family to Disney…

Is a video of an assault on a female police officer a recording of recent events? No, that's not true: The video of the attack in Carthage, Texas, is old. It's from 1997, not 2021. The officer in the video survived and the man who attacked her remained behind bars in May, 2021. The claim appeared in a Facebook post…

Did a buff father who "identifies as the tooth fairy" knock the teeth out of a man pretending to identify as a woman who followed his daughter into a public restroom? No, that's not true: The meme is a mash-up of fabricated events that mock transgender women, attached to an authentic photo of a protective father. The memes featuring this…

Did a former CIA agent confess on his deathbed that he infected reggae legend Bob Marley with cancer? No, that's not true: There is no record of a now-deceased CIA agent named Bill Oxley, beyond a story published in 2017 and later deleted by the publisher, who explained to Lead Stories it was unpublished in a purge of unreliable conspiracy…

Does Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data "reveal" that COVID-19 death totals have been exaggerated by hospitals counting heart attacks as COVID deaths? No, that's not true: Hospitals don't fill out death certificates, doctors and/or medical examiners do. The claim relies on misinterpretation of death certificates. Death certificates record the sequence of events by which humans succumb to a…

Were two British siblings witnesses and participants in sexually depraved, baby-killing, cannibalistic satanic rituals in which their father was the cult leader and every teacher in their school in Hampstead, England, was a member? No, that's not true: This case from 2014 was investigated in London's Family Court in London. In a formal summary the family court judge wrote that…

Has the truck driver attacked in Portland, Oregon, near a Black Lives Matter protest died? No, that's not true. The man attacked on video during a protest on August 16, 2020, has not died, the Portland police confirmed to Lead Stories on August 18. The footage of his assault was widely posted on social media, showing a group of people…

Did Jim Carrey say that Hollywood elites eat whole babies for Christmas and that the more they suffer, the better they taste? No that's not true. This story originated on a website that was notorious for publishing questionable stories and has since rebranded. The 2017 story was erased from the websites, and the publisher has provided a retraction stating there…

Did a Black Lives Matter protester attack another woman by swinging a dog on a leash at her? No, that's not true: Graphic video showing a Black woman grabbing a dog from another woman and swinging it around by the leash took place in a long line of cars backed up to get to a beer store in Canada. It…

Did Mel Gibson say that Hollywood is controlled by "parasites" who are involved in child sacrifice and pedophilia? No, there is nothing to substantiate the old claim that Gibson said it while on a promotional tour in 2017. The actor's spokesman told Lead Stories, "I can assure you that he never said such a thing ... he never stated that…