New Jersey

Does this video show footage of new IRS agents in training? No, that's not true: The footage is from a university event held in 2017 for accounting students that allowed them to perform a mock investigation with IRS Criminal Investigation unit agents for a day. The claim appeared in a Facebook post on August 17, 2022. The post included a…

Do federal laws protecting bats prevent a homeowners association (HOA) from "legally doing anything" if someone in the neighborhood installs a bat roost to attract thousands of bats to the neighborhood? No, that's not true: This contrived scenario depends on unlikely variables coming together in order to "succeed" -- to use endangered animals and the protections afforded to them to…

Is New Jersey planning to launch a new "30-day speeding ticket frenzy" on July 28, 2022? No, that's not true: The New Jersey State Police has publicly debunked this recycled hoax several times since at least 2015. The claim appeared in a Facebook post on July 13, 2022. Beside the photo of a letter with highlighted text on the top…

Was John F. Kennedy Jr., preparing to make an announcement about his candidacy for U.S. senator of New York right before his death? No, that's not true: Although reports have suggested that Kennedy was considering running for the Senate seat, there was no indication that, before his death in July 1999, he was about to announce his candidacy. Consequently, the…

Does a 2009 television show prove the COVID-19 pandemic was planned? No, that's not true: There is no evidence presented in the nearly three-minute clip from the "Secret Societies" episode of the truTV show "Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura" that proves the epidemic was planned by the global elite to reduce the world's surplus population. The claims appeared in a…

Is it against the law to sell alcohol in Bourbon County, Kentucky, which would make it "dry"? And is Christian County, Kentucky "wet"? No, that's only partly true: A map by the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development titled, "Alcoholic Beverage Sales in Kentucky" shows that both Bourbon County and Christian County are "wet." This claim appeared in a Facebook post…

Is farmed salmon poison? And is the "grey" meat of a farmed salmon dyed with artificial colors that can make people blind? No, that's not true: Salmon flesh is not gray like a battleship. Ingested and metabolized carotenoids, regardless if the fish is wild or farmed, are what cause the flesh of salmon to develop its namesake color. Canthaxanthin and…

Is this a picture of Abraham Lincoln, who was a runaway slave who changed his identity to avoid being lynched? No, that's not true: The man pictured is an unidentified person who sat for a portrait by Augustus Washington, a daguerreotypist, who was a free man of color and who emigrated to Liberia in late 1853. This daguerreotype was transferred…

Have only three drugs "ever been subject to the Nobel Prize because of their impact on human lives"? No, that's not true: At least four Nobel Prizes have been awarded to scientists for inventing drugs that have had a "significant impact on human lives." The claim originated in a Facebook post (archived here) on December 5, 2021. It opened with:…

Are there no movie theater listings after January 6, 2022? No, that's not true: At the time of writing, movie theaters in larger markets like New York and Los Angeles had posted showtimes for after Thursday, January 6, 2022. Some theaters in the United States had not publicized movie listings after January 6, 2022, because theaters make the schedules on…