rumours

CLAIM The first “radioactive salmon” attributed to the Fukushima nuclear disaster have been found in British Columbia, Canada, posing a risk to human health. Mixture RATING Mixture WHAT’S TRUE A single salmon found in the Osoyoos Lake in British Columbia in 2015 (first reported in November 2016) had low but detectable levels of the radioactive …

The executive director of the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations is accusing a state lawmaker of refusing to meet with Muslim constituents unless they answered a questionnaire described as anti-Muslim. Adam Soltani published a video on 2 March 2017 displaying the document, which he said was handed out by Republican Rep. John …

CLAIM Target’s stock crashed because of its transgender bathroom policy. false RATING false ORIGIN On 28 February 2017, Breitbart.com reported that big box retailer Target’s stock had “crashed,” losing a combined total of $15 billion in investor wealth, because of the chain’s announcement in 2016 that it would allow transgender customers and employees to use bathrooms corresponding …

Rasmea Yousef Odeh, a 69-year-old Palestinian-American activist and one of the organizers of “A Day Without a Woman,” a worldwide strike planned for International Women’s Day on 8 March 2017, was convicted some 47 years ago of participating in a deadly terrorist bombing, multiple news reports and court documents confirm.  Two Hebrew University students were killed in the 1969 blast, which …

On 27 February 2017, SpaceX announced that it had “been approached” by two private citizens about a trip around the moon: We are excited to announce that SpaceX has been approached to fly two private citizens on a trip around the moon late next year. They have already paid a significant deposit to do a moon …

CLAIM John McCain solicited campaign contributions from Russia. mostly false RATING mostly false ORIGIN In late February 2017, a host of questionable web sites began reporting that document-dumping web site WikiLeaks had revealed “breaking” news that Arizona Sen. John McCain had solicited a campaign contribution from the Russian government: Is it all over for John …

CLAIM Tucker Carlson hired an actor to play a protest organizer on his Fox News program. false RATING false ORIGIN On 21 February 2017, the Daily Beast published an article delineating a scenario in which conservative Fox News host Tucker Carlson unsuccessfully tried to book an anti-Trump protest organizer as a guest on his “Tucker Carlson Tonight” …

The last time I ever saw Anthony Sherman was on the Fourth of July, 1859, in Independence Square. He was then ninety-nine years old, his dimming eyes rekindled as he gazed upon Independence Hall, which he had come to visit once more. “I want to tell you an incident of Washington’s life one which no …

CLAIM The state of California ignored structural issues with the Oroville dam and paid for programs to benefit undocumented people instead. mostly false RATING mostly false WHAT’S TRUE State and federal officials have failed to address concerns about the Oroville Dam spillways for years. WHAT’S FALSE The state did not sacrifice the dam to instead …

CLAIM A woman was raped and murdered in Turkey during a trek for “world peace.” See Example(s) EXAMPLES I gave been sent the following from conservative friends in facebook. Is it true? “Idiot liberal hitchhikes through Middle East to prove Muslims are peaceful. Was raped and murdered instead.” mixture RATING mixture ORIGIN On 19 February 2016, …

A Michigan Republican official and conservative radio host has apologized after facing bipartisan criticism for invoking the Kent State massacre to criticize anti-right wing protests on 2 February 2017: Dan Adamini told the Detroit Free Press that he was sorry for contributing to the “spawning of hatred” through two online posts that have since been …

Claim: A 1940’s Dr. Seuss political cartoon criticized America for not caring about the deaths of foreign children. true Origin:In mid-2015, global debate raged over an increasingly large exodus from Syria, while the terror attacks in Paris on 13 November 2015 exacerbated tensions about matter of asylum seekers across the world. Items that were popular …

On 2 February 2017, Time magazne reported on the findings of a study published in the journal Nature Communications that described how, by their telling, a lost continent was found in the Indian Ocean: You’d think it would be hard to misplace an entire continent, what with the mountains and trees and all that other …

Claim: A vintage advertisement features a young boy eating a stick of butter. FALSE Origin:An image purportedly showing a vintage advertisement touting the benefits of butter and showing a young child about to consume a stick of that product with his fork has been circulating on the Internet for several years: This image was recirculated …

Claim: Donald Trump signed an executive order naming climate change as a threat “both to the economy and national security.”     Origin:On 1 February 2017, a fake news purveyor put out a story based around an alleged reversal of course on environmental issues by United States President Donald Trump: Early this morning, President Donald Trump signed an …

Renee Wetzel of Lake Arrowhead, California, whose husband Michael was one of 14 people killed, along with 21 others wounded, in the 2 December 2015 terrorist attack on a social services center in San Bernardino, has posted a Facebook message criticizing President Trump’s 27 January 2017 executive order banning refugees and immigrants from seven primarily Muslim countries. Administration …

Origin:Though a bit of misinformation about NASA’s supposedly having said that the burning of fossil fuels actually cools the Earth’s climate dates back to December 2015, it was recently dug up and reposted on the conservative website Louder with Crowder on 27 January 2017. In the site’s original post (published on 21 December 2015), Courtney …

Brooke Binkowski is an award-winning journalist and researcher. She has written and produced for CNN, CBS, NPR, the Globe and Mail, AJ+, the Christian Science Monitor, and various other outlets. Brooke speaks two languages well and five languages very badly. She loves to travel, run, play music, and read, and is an avid saber fencer …

Demonstrators angry over the detention of travelers at John F. Kennedy International Airport gathered at the busy travel hub on 28 January 2017, denouncing and executive order by President Donald Trump banning travel from some predominantly Muslim countries. Iraqi man to crowd gathered to protest his detainment at JFK: “This is humanity. This is the …

Bethania Palma Markus is a journalist from the Los Angeles area who started her career as a daily newspaper reporter and has covered everything from crime to government to national politics. She has written for a variety of publications as a staffer and freelancer, including the Los Angeles News Group, the LAist, LA School Report, …