John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Republican President Abraham Lincoln in 1865, was affiliated with the anti-immigrant Know-Nothing Party and was a supporter of slavery and the Confederacy. Social media posts claim without evidence that Booth was a Democrat.
Republican Mark Walker voted against former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment in 2019, and he was no longer a congressman when the House voted to impeach Trump a second time in 2021. Yet, a misleading TV ad claims Walker, who is running for U.S. Senate in North Carolina, “abandoned” Trump on a vote “to block a Democrat bill” impeaching Trump.
What does a fact-checking organization do when the facts aren’t clear? And what happens when reputable scientists disagree about a public health policy?
The COVID-19 pandemic was caused by a novel coronavirus, first isolated in January 2020. But a viral video has been spreading a conspiracy theory that the pandemic has actually been a plot to poison people with snake venom.
A TV ad from a super PAC backing Dr. Mehmet Oz for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania stretches the facts in an attempt to tie Oz’s chief rival, Dave McCormick, to Black Lives Matter.
The ingredients of McDonald’s restaurant food have been the subject of bogus claims in social media posts in recent years. In April, posts falsely claimed the fast-food chain includes xylitol, which is toxic to dogs, in its ice cream. The company told us xylitol is not used in its food, and the sweetener isn’t listed as an ingredient on McDonald’s website.
The Disney Company opposed Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education” law, also referred to by critics as “Don’t Say Gay.” Disney’s actions sparked calls from conservatives for a boycott of Disney — and a flurry of unfounded or exaggerated claims on social media that the company was suffering declines in subscribers, visitors and stock value.
Those who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 are more prone to serious illness and are dying at higher rates than those who are vaccinated. But partisan social media accounts, including a post by a member of former President Donald Trump’s campaign legal team, continue to misleadingly suggest the vaccines are unnecessary and discourage their use.
The most recent statistical measures of how the U.S. has changed since the president took office.
When it comes to political images, seeing shouldn’t always be believing. Case in point is an image recently tweeted by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp that is misleadingly presented to make his polling advantage over Republican rival David Perdue appear larger than it actually is in a hypothetical general election matchup with Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams.