Did the actor and film director Ron Howard write an essay on why "I'm a liberal," enumerating 16 key beliefs? No, that's not true: The original 2018 essay, written in the form of an open letter, was published by author Lori Gallagher Witt. Her Facebook post went viral and has since been subjected to several unauthorized revisions and misattributions. In 2020 a man named Ron Howard -- but not the famous director -- reshared Witt's post without crediting her. The post, now wrongly attributed to the celebrity Ron Howard, took on a life of its own and continues to circulate in 2025.
The misattributed essay resurfaced in a post (now unavailable, but archived here) on Facebook on February 9, 2025. The post included a photo of the actor and director Ron Howard. The post begins:
Ron Howard has summed up what many of us believe. Including me....'I'm a liberal, but that doesn't mean what a lot of you apparently think it does. Let's break it down, shall we? Because quite frankly, I'm getting a little tired of being told what I believe and what I stand for. Spoiler alert: not every liberal is the same, though the majority of liberals I know think along roughly these same lines:
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Thu Feb 13 15:40:22 2025 UTC)
The misattributed essay, as copied in the post, continues by enumerating 16 key beliefs of the "author," and closes with these words:
I think that about covers it. Bottom line is that I'm a liberal because I think we should take care of each other. That doesn't mean you should work 80 hours a week so your lazy neighbor can get all your money. It just means I don't believe there is any scenario in which preventable suffering is an acceptable outcome as long as money is saved.'
Ron Howard
Ron Howard did not write this essay. It was written by author Lori Gallagher Witt, who posted it as an open letter on Facebook (archived here) on January 7, 2018. According to the edit history on Witt's original post, she added a copyright notice to the end of the essay on February 2, 2018:
(c) 2018 Lori Gallagher Witt. Feel free to share, but please give me credit, and if you add or change anything, please note accordingly.
Witt's post begins:
An open letter to friends and family who are/were shocked to discover I'm a liberal...
This is going to be VERY long, so: TL;DR: I'm a liberal, I've always been a liberal, but that doesn't mean what a lot of you apparently think it does.
Some of you suspected. Some of you were shocked. Many of you have known me for years, even the majority of my life. We either steadfastly avoided political topics, or I carefully steered conversations away from the more incendiary subjects in the name of keeping the peace. 'I'm a liberal' isn't really something you broadcast in social circles where 'the liberals' can't be said without wrinkling one's nose.
This is how her 2018 post appears on Facebook in 2025 (this image will open larger in a new window). Due to the length of the essay, it is presented below as two screenshots.
(Source: Facebook screenshots taken on Thu Feb 13 16:51:01 2025 UTC)
In a May 24, 2020, post (archived here) Witt called the event whereby her post became virally misattributed "The Howarding." She reported some of the reactions and criticisms she received. In an earlier post (archived here) on January 31, 2020, she explained:
So hey, all, the Ron Howard who posted my liberal letter isn't *that* Ron Howard, but he IS getting bombarded with messages over it. He's corrected his original post, but a lot of copied and pasted versions still have his name on them.
Of course I appreciate folks making sure it's correctly attributed, but Ron *has* corrected it as much as he's able, and has been gracious about the whole thing!
The name Ron Howard is not the only name to be attached to Witt's open letter. In October 2018, a copy of Witt's writing (archived here) was circulating with an attribution, "written by Larry Allen" at both top and bottom of the essay.
In 2020 and again in 2025 Snopes published a fact check on this claim. Check Your Fact and PolitiFact also published fact checks on this claim in 2020.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks on claims involving misattributions can be found here.
