Did CNN broadcast a story about reality TV star Kourtney Kardashian making an "XTAPE" with pop star Justin Bieber while he was still a minor? No, that's not true: The senior vice president of communications for CNN said an image with a CNN logo making this claim that was shared on social media was "fabricated." A search through Google News did not yield any credible information that would back up this claim about the tape.
The claim appeared in a post on Facebook (archived here) on June 8, 2024. The caption read:
(VIDEO) 7 MINUTES AGO: Feds expose Kourtney Kardashian's XTAPE SECRET with Justin Bieber as a minor...
Full Details Here
https://ln.run/_tN00
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Tue Jun 11 13:45:56 2024 UTC)
The image with the post contains a smaller image of what the claim alleges is a CNN broadcast of the story on live TV. "XTAPE" appears to mean sex tape, given the context.
Clicking the link in the caption led users to an article on this page (archived here) that starts in the middle of a sentence. The first coherent part of the article read:
The emergence of a secret videotape allegedly depicting disturbing acts involving Justin Bieber and Courtney Kardashian has triggered a significant response, prompting federal authorities to launch a thorough investigation. The scrutiny surrounding the circumstances of their past interactions has intensified, with attention focused not only on the contents of the alleged videotape but also on the broader implications of the relationships and dynamics involved.
Kardashian's first name is spelled incorrectly in the article.
In a June 11, 2024, email, Emily Kuhn, senior vice president of communications at CNN Worldwide, told Lead Stories that the image was fake:
That image is fabricated and is not something CNN reported.
We searched CNN.com for any evidence that the news source had reported on this claim and found no results (archived here).
Lead Stories also searched using keywords on Google News, visible here, which found no credible reporting to corroborate the claim (archived here).
Lead Stories contacted both Kardashian's and Bieber's management teams and will update this article if we receive relevant responses.
Other Lead Stories fact checks on claims concerning Justin Bieber can be found here.
