Death Hoax

Was Walt Disney a founder of NASA? No, that's not true: Disney founded an animation, television and movie studio as well as a theme park empire. He produced a television series about space travel in 1955 with a NASA rocket designer. This was three years before President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, which…

Was SpongeBob SquarePants based on the abusive childhood of a 9-year-old boy in the 1940s, as a video on TikTok suggested? No, that's not true: Stephen Hillenburg, the cartoon's creator, said in a 2015 interview that he was inspired by his marine science background to create the show and its characters. The show was primarily based on a comic book…

Did "Spetznas" snipers fatally shoot the World Economic Forum's head of the Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Supply Chains, Kiva Allgood, on April 26, 2024? No, that's not true: There is no credible evidence that this happened. In addition, the website where this claim appeared has a record of publishing fabricated content. The claim appeared in an article published by…

Did controversial naturopath Barbara O'Neill endorse a recipe of thyme oil said to "eliminate 97% of lung tumor cells," as a post on Facebook suggested? No, that's not true: O'Neill is the subject of a fake post on Facebook designed to look as though it belongs to O'Neill. A link in the post's comment section redirects users to an unrelated…

Was the wife of a "White Hat officer" found dead under suspicious circumstances in North Carolina? No, that's not true: This claim appeared on a website that publishes fabricated content. There is also no credible evidence to substantiate this claim. The claim appeared in an article published by Real Raw News on March 25, 2024, titled "White Hat Officer's Wife…

Did a Delta Force strike team arrest 86-year-old World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab on April 12, 2024? No, that's not true: There is no credible evidence that this happened. In addition, the website where this claim appeared has a rrecord of publishing fabricated content. The claim appeared in an article published by Real Raw News on April 15, 2024,…

Did a migrant who was angry that he had not received a packet of government benefits throw a rock from an interstate overpass, nearly killing a woman? No, that's not true: This story appears to be based on a 2014 incident that occurred along Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania. In that case the perpetrators throwing rocks were teenage boys from Pennsylvania,…

Did the Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps begin the tribunal of Attorney General Merrick Garland on March 22, 2024, because he was purportedly charged with treason? No, that's not true: A Pentagon duty officer told Lead Stories that the information in this claim is "false." This claim appears on a website that regularly publishes fabricated content. The claim appeared in…

Did the Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps convict the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Matthew Graves, of treason in March 2024? No, that's not true: This claim appears in an article on a website that regularly publishes fabricated content. Lead Stories previously debunked the claim, also mentioned in this article, that Graves was initially arrested for treason by…

Did the Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps arrest Judge Sharon Coleman, a federal judge in Illinois, on March 19, 2024? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois told Lead Stories that "there is absolutely no truth" to this claim. The article that made this claim was published on a website…