Did Fox 8 in Cleveland refer to a Black murder suspect as having "dark white skin"? No, that's not true: The claim that reemerged on social media in 2025 was debunked at the time of its inception, in 2017. Back then, the TV channel issued a public statement stating that what went viral was an altered version of the real wanted poster shown on live TV.
The claim resurfaced in a post (archived here) published on X on September 8, 2025. The entry shared what appeared to be a screenshot of a wanted poster broadcast on live TV. One side showed a picture of a bearded man, while the other side read:
SUSPECT SEARCH- Dark white skin- Steve Stephens- 6'1" - 233 Ibs- Bald with Full Beard- Wearing dark blue and grey or black striped polo shirt.- Driving White Ford FusionCONSIDERED ARMED & DANGEROUS
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of post at x.com/hodgetwins.)
The bottom left corner of the image displayed the Fox 8 logo, which is a news station covering Cleveland, Ohio. It was where the 2017 killing of 74-year-old Robert Godwin Sr. (archived here) that was broadcast on Facebook (archived here) occurred.
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of search results at TinEye.com.)
Yet, back then, on April 16, 2017, the channel wrote (archived here) on X, then still known as Twitter:
This image did not originate from FOX8. It was altered.
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of post at x.com/fox8news)
The earliest archived version of the Fox 8 report that quoted law enforcement to describe the suspect on that day did not show the TV channel describing the person in question as being "dark white" on its website.
