Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy this week proposed that a physical fitness test be added to the college admissions process as a way for colleges to diversify their student body. “This is a pro-merit solution that rewards div
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Watermelon Cracks Are NOT Caused By Plant Growth Regulator And Do NOT Cause Cancer, Other Health Issues
Should cracked watermelon not be eaten because the cracks may be from the plant growth regulator forchlorfenuron, which causes cancer and neurological complications? No, that's not true: The cracks in the flesh of watermelon are caused by
The Dispatch→ Leopards Eating People’s Faces
Turns out populists have faces too.
ABC News / AP Fact Check→ Woman describing pandemic plans for a ‘soft coup’ is not a WHO representative
CLAIM: A video shows a World Health Organization representative discussing plans the agency is developing as a way to disregard human rights protections in the name of pandemic preparedness.
The Dispatch→ Holy Bovines
On Vivek Ramaswamy, Social Security, and the Iowa State Fair.
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Chief Justice John Roberts Did NOT Request $780 Million For Security Of Supreme Court Justices
Did Chief Justice John Roberts ask for $780 million to protect the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices, with each of the justices receiving close to $87 million, in 2024? No, that's not true: The federal judiciary system asked Congress in Ma
PolitiFact→ Roy Cooper – Cooper overstates effect of North Carolina elections bill
GOP-authored elections bill “requires valid votes to be tossed out … if a computer rejects a signature.”
PolitiFact→ Ted Cruz – Is Joe Biden trying to limit how much beer you can drink? No. Ted Cruz is wrong.
“(President Joe) Biden is trying to limit you to two beers per week.”
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Fox News Did NOT Report UNC Shooting Suspect As A ‘Mostly White Asian Male’
Did Fox News broadcast a report displaying an image of an Asian man suspected of fatally shooting a person with a chyron that reads, "Shooter described 'mostly white Asian male'"? No, that's not true: A Fox News spokesperson told Lead Sto
ABC News / AP Fact Check→ Arkansas isn’t ditching voting machines for paper ballots, despite claims online
CLAIM: Arkansas is switching to election ballots that are marked by hand rather than by machine. AP’S ASSESSMENT: False.
FactCheck.org→ Video Clip Misrepresents Biden’s Meeting with Israeli President
Quick Take President Joe Biden met with the Israeli president in July at the White House. A clip from that meeting is circulating online with the false suggestion that Biden was “falling asleep” during the meeting. The full video shows
ABC News / AP Fact Check→ A study by Fauci and colleagues didn’t blame 1918 Spanish flu deaths on masks
CLAIM: A study co-authored by Dr. Anthony Fauci showed that “most of the deaths” during the 1918-1919 Spanish flu pandemic were actually due to infections from face masks.
PolitiFact→ Instagram posts – No connection between Gates-funded modified ticks, meat allergy
Bill Gates-funded research into genetically engineered cattle ticks is responsible for red-meat allergies from alpha-gal syndrome in the U.S.
The Dispatch→ When the House Returns, It’ll Be Crunch Time
Plus: Succession questions loom after another Mitch McConnell medical scare.
Logically→ Old videos of different cyclones passed off as visuals of Hurricane Idalia
The Dispatch→ No, Trump’s Interview With Tucker Carlson Was Not the Most-Watched Video ‘In the History of the World’
Twitter’s ‘views’ metric offers an inflated measure of actual viewership.
FactCheck.org→ TV Ad Twists Facts to Fit Narrative in Attack on Beshear in Kentucky Governor’s Race
A TV ad from a conservative super PAC attacks Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s decision during the COVID-19 pandemic to release more than 1,800 prisoners convicted of non-violent or non-sexual felonies. But the details of the case feature
Full Fact→ What do the figures on persistent absence from school show?
We’ve looked into the data after a series of claims regarding pupil absence rates in England were made on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Full Fact→ A patient did not wait in A&E for 36 days
FOI information obtained by Labour contained errors, which made it appear that a patient had waited continuously in A&E when in fact they left the hospital and returned the following month.
The Dispatch→ Mitch McConnell’s Future as Leader Uncertain Following Second Freeze-Up
Plus: A prominent New Hampshire donor says he’s warming to Ron DeSantis.
PolitiFact→ Joe Biden – Joe Biden is mostly right that the US inflation rate is the lowest among other leading economies
U.S. inflation is "now down close to 3%, the lowest among the world’s leading economies."
Full Fact→ Telegraph mixes up heart attacks and cardiac arrests
The newspaper mistakenly referred to people having heart attacks when discussing access to public defibrillators. The devices should be used in cardiac arrests only—a different condition.
PolitiFact→ Facebook posts – Do these photos show kids practicing satanism in public schools? No, they’re AI-generated
Photos are evidence of “satanism in public schools.”
Logically→ Denmark’s proposed bill to stop Quran burnings will not prohibit all criticism of Islam
Logically→ Denmark’s proposed bill to stop Quran burnings will not prohibit all criticism of Islam
PolitiFact→ Facebook posts – Una imagen no muestra una nave extraterrestre camuflándose con las nubes, esta fue editada
"Las naves extraterrestres se camuflan con nubes sobre la nave”.
AllSides→ COVID-19 Vaccines Have Not Been Shown to Cause ‘Turbo Cancer’
https://www.factcheck.org/2023/08/covid-19-vaccines-have-not-been-shown-to-cause-turbo-cancer/ COVID-19
ABC News / AP Fact Check→ NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn’t happen this week
Social media users shared a range of false claims this week. Here are the facts: Health officials said a new COVID-19 variant may be more likely to infect people with immunity than previous variants; they didn't say vaccinated people are more at risk t
Logically→ ನಾಸಾ ಬಿಡುಗಡೆ ಮಾಡಿದ ಮಂಗಳ ಗ್ರಹದ ದೃಶ್ಯಗಳನ್ನು ಚಂದ್ರಯಾನ-೩ ಸೆರೆಹಿಡಿದ ದೃಶ್ಯಗಳೆಂದು ತಪ್ಪಾಗಿ ಹಂಚಿಕೊಳ್ಳಲಾಗಿದೆ
Full Fact→ Flight tracking map doesn’t show chemtrail planes
The claim has been debunked by tracking site FlightRadar24 since April 2020.
Logically→ 2022 video of PM Modi meeting Queen of Denmark viral with false claim
Full Fact→ Areas that voted Brexit weren’t the only ones affected by mad cow disease
A post, first shared in 2016, has recently been reposted by thousands of people online.
The Dispatch→ New York Democrats Battle Over Immigration
Officials in the Big Apple want more help in sheltering tens of thousands of migrants.
Logically→ तमिलनाडु में कांग्रेस को वोट देने के बाद शख़्स ने काट दी अपनी उंगली? नहीं, दावा फ़र्ज़ी है
Logically→ তুৰস্কৰ এক অট্টালিকা ভাঙি পেলোৱাৰ ভিডিঅ’ক মণিপুৰৰ হিংসাৰ সৈতে মিছাকৈ জড়িত কৰা হৈছে
Logically→ আন্তৰ্জাতিক মহাকাশ কেন্দ্ৰই আৱদ্ধ কৰা পুৰণি ভিজুৱেল চন্দ্ৰযান-৩য়ে পঠোৱা ভিডিঅ’ বুলি মিছাকৈ শ্বেয়াৰ কৰা হৈছে
The Dispatch→ Brittle Regimes
Animal Spirits or The House Republican Conference?
The Dispatch→ Vivek Ramaswamy’s Garbled January 6 Hypothesis, Explained
Trying to perform the vice president’s role ‘very differently’ than Mike Pence would not have gotten very far.
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: 78,000 People Are NOT Under The Water In Great Britain — Old Video Clips Are Misrepresented
Are 78,000 people "under the water" right now in Great Britain? No, that's not true: This video is a compilation of flood and storm video clips from years past, and in some cases from other places such as Canada and South Africa. These ar
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Obamas Do NOT Have Maui Estate That Would Have Been Affected By August 2023 Wildfires
Do former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama own an estate in Maui, Hawaii, and was that supposed Maui estate "spared from the fires" that affected Maui in early August 2023? No, that's not true: The Obamas do not own an e