Did Fox News host Dana Perino announce that she was leaving the network to make CBD gummies? No, that's not true: Paid posts promoting the claim on social media shared an article purporting to be a Fox News report, though it was published on an unrelated website. A Fox News representative said the claim was false, too.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook on June 4, 2024. It began:
You'll never see Dana Perino again!
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of the publication of this fact check:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Fri Jun 7 15:00:12 2024 UTC)
Claim
The link attached to the post led to a page (archived here) that purported to be the Fox News website. Though it showed the network's logo and copied the structure of its articles, it was published by an unaffiliated, paracord-selling Michigan-based website (archived here).
Mimicking a Fox News report, the article claimed:
(Fox) - In an Exclusive Interview, Dana Perino, the renowned former White House Press Secretary, political commentator, and businesswoman, announced that she would be leaving 'The Five' due to recent tensions with Sean Hannity, caused by her latest business venture.
Last week, during a heated episode, the popular conservative host, Dana Perino, made headlines by unveiling her new CBD line live on 'The Five'. Sean Hannity was outraged and expressed his intention to sue Dana Perino and Fox for violating his contract and allegedly driving away sponsors.
Clicking on the Fox News logo in the top right corner of the page leads to a single-page website (archived here) that sells CBD gummies. The site lacks any information about the product's producer or distributor.
Claim denied
Speaking to Lead Stories via email on June 7, 2024, Media Relations Manager for Fox News Media Connor Smith refuted the post's claim about Perino's supposed departure from Fox News:
I can confirm that this report is false.
As of June 7, 2024, the Fox News website (archived here) shows that Perino continues to work for the network :
(Source: Fox News screenshot taken on Jun 7 16:52:31 2024 UTC)
A search across websites indexed by Google News, using keywords seen here (archived here), also did not produce any results corroborating the claim.
Ad campaigns
The image of Perino reused in the post on Facebook was not new or authentic. It was a manipulated version of a screenshot from her show that Fox News published on September 16, 2021 (archived here).
Though a proper label distinguishing paid content did not appear in the post on Facebook about Perinno, it was an ad, as the Page Transparency tab showed for part of June 7, 2024:
(Source: Meta screenshot taken on Fri Jun 7 15:09:26 2024 UTC)
Snopes, which reviewed similar posts in May 2024, pointed out that other posts promoting the claim were ads, too.
As of this writing, Meta's ad library showed multiple active ads boosting this claim:
(Source: Meta screenshot taken on Fri Jun 7 15:29:52 2024 UTC)
Lead Stories also found an additional post (archived here) about Perino on Facebook published on a page incorrectly categorized as belonging to a "Government Official." The post was a paid ad but wasn't labeled as such.
The post's link led to an article (archived here) identical to the one analyzed in this fact check. It even featured the same typos -- "SparksMajor" and "Responseon air" -- in the headline. The article was presented as published by Fox News, but, in reality, the URL showed that it was hosted on a website (archived here) that sells pants.
Making false claims about celebrities endorsing a certain product or service is an old online marketing trick that Lead Stories has covered extensively.
Unsubstantiated false claims about CBD products also have spread throughout social media for years. Other Lead Stories fact checks of such claims can be found here.
