Spacexmania

Did political commentator Candace Owens file a petition to ban collegiate swimmer Lia Thomas from women's sports? No, that's not true: This claim originally appeared in an article on a satirical website known for publishing fabricated content. There is otherwise no publicly available or credible evidence to support this claim. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook…

Did country singer-songwriter Garth Brooks say he would leave the U.S. permanently because he felt there is "No Respect For Me Here"? No, that's not true: The site that originally posted the claim says its satirical articles are "not meant to be taken seriously." Brooks' website states that he is to perform at concerts based in the United States for…

Did celebrity TV chef Guy Fieri publicly ban "The View" host Whoopi Goldberg in January 2024 from visiting any of his restaurants? No, that's not true: A self-described satirical website, which specializes in what it calls "the freshest fake news," first published this claim. Goldberg has denied on air that she ever was kicked out of Fieri's restaurants. The claim…

Did Country Music Television ban Taylor Swift "for life" from their channel? No, that's not true: There is no publicly available and credible evidence that the company made that decision. An early version of the claim appeared on a website that publishes fictitious satirical content. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on Facebook on February 26, 2024.…

Has actor Denzel Washington said that he "won't go woke" for a new role? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that Washington ever publicly said this. This statement appeared on a self-identified satire website. The claim originated in an article published by The Dunning-Kruger Times on January 3, 2024, titled "Denzel Washington Has One Rule When He Takes…

Did Lia Thomas decide to swim with a men's team after facing "extreme criticism" for transitioning and swimming with female teams? No, that's not true: This claim about the transgender woman swimmer comes from a satirical website that has a history of fabricating content surrounding popular topics. The site says in its About section that it brings "the freshest fake…

Is the NCAA transferring swimmer Lia Thomas' medals to Riley Gaines? No, that's not true: An NCAA spokesperson told Lead Stories that this claim is false. A site that originated the claim says its satirical articles are "not meant to be taken seriously." The claim appeared in a post on Facebook on December 3, 2023 (archived here). Above a side-by-side…

Did National Football League (NFL) coaches unanimously vote to ban "anthem kneeling" permanently? No, that's not true: An NFL representative told Lead Stories that this claim was "totally false." A Google News and NFL.com search did not yield evidence of such a vote, and Lead Stories found the same story reposted on a satire website. The claim appeared on Facebook…

Did Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg ban Tesla CEO Elon Musk from Facebook? Has Musk responded to Zuckerberg's alleged statement? No, neither of those are true: This claim comes from a satirical website and was originally posted in March 2023 labeled as satire before it was republished, without the satire label, in August 2023. Lead Stories could not find any evidence…

Did Elon Musk offer Tucker Carlson the Twitter CEO job after Carlson was fired from Fox News? No, that's not true: The website that posted the story is a satirical site. It included quotes that were never posted on Twitter by Musk regarding Carlson. The CEO of Twitter at the time of writing was Linda Yaccarino. The claim appeared in…