Quick Take
A photo of Chris Wallace circulating on social media purports to show the Fox News anchor with Jeffrey Epstein. He was actually pictured with George Clooney.
Full Story
Fox News anchor Chris Wallace moderated the first presidential debate of 2020 and has been the target of misinformation since then.
After the Sept. 29 debate, partisan social media accounts began posting pictures of Wallace boarding or getting off a boat, making the bogus claim that he was with Jeffrey Epstein, the wealthy financier who died in federal custody as he faced sex-trafficking charges. We’ve written before about similar instances in which social media posts have sought to discredit political figures by tying them to Epstein.
In this case, Wallace was actually pictured with George Clooney at the actor’s house in Lake Como, Italy, in 2012.
Shortly after the trip, Wallace told Politico reporter Patrick Gavin, “It was great. It was everything you would imagine it would be. Great food, great wine, and great talk.” The video of that discussion includes the two photos that are now circulating with the false claim that they show Wallace with Epstein.
Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to debunk misinformation shared on social media. Our previous stories can be found here.
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Sources
Fichera, Angelo. “Photo Manipulated to Show Schiff With Epstein.” FactCheck.org. 2 Dec 2019.
Hale Spencer, Saranac. “Bogus Photo Combines Trump, Epstein Images.” FactCheck.org. 10 Jul 2019.
Di Giovanni, Janine. “Crazy for Lake Como.” Vanity Fair. 15 Sep 2007.
“Chris Wallace on his vacation with George Clooney.” Politico. 17 Aug 2012.