Was TV host Joy Behar arrested at the airport trying to flee the country after a $50M lawsuit involving comments about White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt? No, that's not true: The story narrated in a viral video was written by AI according to online detection tools, and there have been no actual news reports about any such lawsuit. An image in the video thumbnail that supposedly showed the arrest as Behar was attempting to board "a one-way flight to Italy, her ancestral homeland" was also generated with AI tools.
The story appeared in a video (archived here) published on YouTube on February 17, 2025, under the headline "Joy Behar ARRESTED at Airport Trying to Flee the Country After $50M Lawsuit-Karoline Leavitt Reacts!." The description opened:
Daytime television has just been rocked by an unbelievable bombshell--Joy Behar, the fiery and controversial co-host of The View, has been arrested at the airport while allegedly trying to flee the country. And why? Because of a shocking $50 million lawsuit that could completely destroy her career. The drama is unfolding fast, and the details are even crazier than you'd expect. Did Joy really try to run from the law? Is her career officially over? Stay tuned, because this story is about to take a wild turn.
Everything began with a single comment that sent shockwaves through the entertainment industry. During a heated debate on The View, Joy Behar made a highly controversial remark about Caroline Leavitt, the newly appointed White House Press Secretary. In a moment that would haunt her forever, Behar dismissed Leavitt's qualifications, suggesting that she only got the role because of her appearance.
The backlash was instant and brutal. Social media erupted into a firestorm, with thousands of users demanding accountability. Political analysts, journalists, and even former colleagues chimed in, calling Behar's statement one of the most reckless comments of her career. Viewers from both sides of the political spectrum found themselves united in outrage, accusing her of blatant hypocrisy. For years, Behar had built her career championing women's rights and empowerment--yet, in one careless moment, she had completely contradicted her own principles.
Click below to watch the video on YouTube:
Lead Stories analyzed some of the writing in the story using Hive's AI detection browser plugin, and it found the text was "99.5 percent likely to be AI-Generated":
(Screenshot of Hive plugin output taken by Lead Stories on February 18, 2025 at 07:51:01 UTC)
The story followed a formulaic structure often used in AI clickbait articles: a person, company, or group that is liked or disliked by the intended audience for political or cultural reasons gets (fictionally) punished or rewarded in some way, for example, by losing or gaining a contract, job, endorsement, business deal, award or title or by getting sued or arrested.
It appeared on a YouTube channel named @ScandalScoop1 that has only been in operation since January 9, 2025, according to its "About" tab, and which has posted several similar videos involving arrests and lawsuits:
The thumbnail used for the video on YouTube showed Behar being led away by two men, but that image was "97.6 percent likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content," according to an AI detection tool at Hive.
(Screenshot of Hive plugin output taken by Lead Stories on February 18, 2025 at 07:58:02 UTC)
A Google News search for recent news articles containing both "Joy Behar" and "Karoline Leavitt" only brought up results dating back to January 30, 2025, and before (archived here). The most recent ones were about a comment Behar made about Leavitt ("I think she's probably been put in there because according to Donald Trump, she's a ten." -- source, archive), but none of them mentioned any lawsuit.
