Was actress Kathy Griffin "thrown off the red carpet" at the Met Gala in 2024? No, that's not true: This claim appeared on an America's Last Line of Defense Facebook account, listed under a "satire/parody" category. Lead Stories has previously debunked many other satirical claims by entertainment websites, such as The Dunning-Kruger Times, in the America's Last Line of Defense network.
The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) on May 8, 2024. The caption stated:
Kathy Griffin got herself thrown off the red carpet at the Met Gala.
'She wasn't on the list,' said head of Met Security Jow Barron, 'We have strict procedures. You need an invitation, and she didn't have one.'
Looks like Kathy is on the outs with the in crowd.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of the writing of this fact check:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Fri May 10 21:43:53 2024 UTC)
The author of the post continued in the comment section:
Our lead journalisticator for Met Gala events, Tara Newhole, says the scene started out a little bit funny, but then it turned a little bit darker.
'I'll hold all of your heads for a comedy routine if you don't let me in,' she shouted. According to our legalistical editor, Joe Barron, she should have been arrested last time, and she should be arrested this time:
'Arrest and seize all assets. That's the only way to send a message that if you want to be free, you'll do as you're told.'
Makes sense. God Bless you, Joe Barron, and God Bless America.
Under Categories on the About page of the America's Last Line of Defense (ALLOD) account, it reads:
Satire/Parody · Entertainment website
Lead Stories did a search using keywords on Google News, visible here, which found no credible documents or reporting to corroborate the claim about Kathy Griffin.
There is also no evidence that an ALLOD "lead journalisticator for Met Gala events" named "Tara Newhole" exists; the name is a phonetic pun on a colloquial phrase for an abusive critique.
Nor is there evidence that there was a head of Met Security named Jow Barron. Joe Barron is the name of a deceased friend of the website founder Christopher Blair, who frequently uses a variation of the name in stories as an homage.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims related to Kathy Griffin can be found here.
ALLOD & The Dunning-Kruger Times
The site is part of the America's Last Line of Defense network of satire websites run by self-professed liberal troll Christopher Blair from Maine along with a loose confederation of friends and allies. He runs several websites and Facebook pages with visible satire disclaimers everywhere. They mostly publish made-up stories with headlines specifically created to trigger Republicans, conservatives and evangelical Christians into angrily sharing or commenting on the story on Facebook without actually reading the full article, exposing them to mockery and ridicule by fans of the sites and pages.
Every site in the network has an about page that reads (in part):
About Satire
Before you complain and decide satire is synonymous with "comedy":sat·ire
ˈsaˌtī(ə)r
noun
The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined. Any similarities between this site's pure fantasy and actual people, places, and events are purely coincidental and all images should be considered altered and satirical. See above if you're still having an issue with that satire thing.
Articles from Blair's sites frequently get copied by "real" fake news sites that omit the satire disclaimer and other hints the stories are fake. One of the most persistent networks of such sites is run by a man from Pakistan named Kashif Shahzad Khokhar (aka "DashiKashi"), who has spammed hundreds of such stolen stories into conservative and right-wing Facebook pages in order to profit from the ad revenue.
When fact checkers point this out to the people liking and sharing these copycat stories some of them get mad at the fact checkers instead of directing their anger at the foreign spammers or the liberal satire writers. Others send a polite "thank you" note, which is much appreciated.
