In 1996, comedian George Carlin performed a comedy bit about televised capital punishment, 30 years before the Pentagon announced its plan to livestream the execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan.
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A rumor that legendary comedian and satirist George Carlin once performed a comedy bit that involved jokes about televised public executions circulated online in October.
Carlin, who died in 2008, was known for his scathing political takedowns and clever wordplay.
People on social mediashared a clip that appears to be from one of Carlin’s standup comedy TV specials, in which the comic allegedly waxed poetic about using public executions to help balance the United States’ budget.
The clip circulated as the Pentagon announced its plan to livestream the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, who was sentenced to death in 2013 for killing 13 people and injuring more than 30 during a shooting at the Army’s Fort Hood post in Texas.
Some users suggested Carlin “predicted” the Pentagon’s move with his comedy bit from decades earlier.
The video was authentic and clipped from Carlin’s 1996 HBO special, “George Carlin: Back in Town,” recorded at The Beacon Theater in New York City on March 30 of that year. The special is available to stream for free on Tubi and was also released as an album on Sept. 17, 1996.
The clip in question is part of a segment titled “Capital Punishment,” which begins around the 14:30 mark in the full special. The clip was also available to viewon Carlin’s official website.
During the special, Carlin joked about performing crucifixions during “Monday Night Football” in a satirical bit about executing white collar criminals facilitating the laundering of drug money.
The joke leads into the moment shown in the viral clip, beginning around the 15:15 mark. Carlin said (emphasis ours):
I don’t care about capital punishment one way or another, because I know it doesn’t do anything. It doesn’t do anything except maybe satisfy a Biblical need for revenge. You know, if you read the Bible, you see that it’s full of retribution and revenge. So really, capital punishment is kind of a religious ritual. It’s a purification rite. It’s a modern sacrament. And as long as that’s true, I say, let’s liven it up a little!
I honestly believe that if you make the death penalty a little more entertaining, and learn to market it correctly, you just might be able to raise enough money to balance the stupid f***ing budget!
And don’t forget, the polls show the American people want capital punishment and they want a balanced budget. And I think even in a fake democracy people ought to get what they want once in a while. Just to feed this illusion that they’re really in charge.
Let’s use capital punishment the same way we use sports and television in this country, to distract people and take their minds off how bad they’re being f***ed by the upper 1 percent. Now, unfortunately, “Monday Night Football” doesn’t last long enough. What we really need is year-round capital punishment on TV every night with sponsors! Gotta have sponsors. I’m sure as long as we’re killing people, Marlboro cigarettes and Dow Chemical will be proud to participate.
To say Carlin “predicted” the Pentagon’s planned livestream of an execution was a stretch, but it’s accurate to say he joked about televised capital punishment 30 years earlier.
The special also featured Carlin’s takes on other hot-button issues that continue to be part of the national discourse in 2026, including abortion and the prison system.
“Back in Town” was Carlin’s ninth HBO comedy special, of which he would do 14 before his death in 2008.
In October, a claim recirculated online that McDonald’s lost a lawsuit against TV chef Jamie Oliver, who — according to posts — proved that the fast food chain’s food is “unfit for human consumption” because it is “highly toxic.” The claim is unproven.
Snopes previously investigated a variation of this claim in 2018 and September 2026. On each occasion, we found that Oliver said in a 2011 TV program that beef trimmings used for a product he called “pink slime” were “not fit for human consumption.” We found no evidence that he specifically called McDonald’s food “unfit for human consumption” or “toxic,” as numerous posts have repeatedly suggested.
The American Meat Institute, a trade association that represents processors of meat and poultry, said in 2012 that beef trimmings used to make “pink slime,” which it calls Boneless Lean Beef Trimmings, are edible.
However, because we could not access a full version of the “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” episode where Oliver discussed “pink slime” to see if he specifically mentioned McDonald’s, we leave this claim unrated.
Snopes will update this report if, or when, additional information surfaces. We contacted Oliver and McDonald’s to ask whether Oliver has ever called the fast food chain’s food “unfit for human consumption” or “toxic” or whether McDonald’s ever lost a lawsuit involving Oliver and are waiting for responses.
A persistent claim recirculated online at the start of October that fast food chain McDonald’s lost a lawsuit against Jamie Oliver after the TV chef proved the restaurant’s food is “unfit for human consumption” because it is “highly toxic.”
For example, one Facebook user has written, in part (archived):
McDonald’s loses lawsuit against chef Jamie Oliver, who proved that the food they sell is unfit for human consumption because it is highly toxic.
Chef Jamie Oliver won a lawsuit against the world’s largest fast-food chain.
Oliver demonstrates how hamburgers are made.
According to Oliver, fatty cuts of meat are “washed” with ammonium hydroxide and then used to fill the hamburger patties. Even before this process, the TV presenter says, this meat was unfit for human consumption.
Snopes readers contacted us about the claim throughout the start of fall 2026. We previously reported on the claim in September 2026 and January 2018.
The claim contains three parts: that McDonald’s sued Oliver, that Oliver made the comments about “pink slime” and that Oliver’s alleged comments were specifically about McDonald’s.
We found no evidence inonlinesearches (archived, archived, archived) that McDonald’s ever lost a lawsuit involving Oliver. AFP Fact Check reported in December 2021 that Oliver had never taken legal action against McDonald’s.
According to an excerpt of a 2011 episode of his program “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution,” Oliver said that the meat used to produce a specific type of beef product that the celebrity chef called “pink slime” is “not fit for human consumption.”
McDonalds reportedly ceased using “pink slime,” which is also known as Boneless Lean Beef Trimmings, in their food in 2011, as we noted in 2018 when we fact-checked a previous version of this claim. Oliver did not mention McDonald’s specifically in excerpts of the 2011 episode of “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” that Snopes reviewed.
However, because we could not access a full version of the “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” episode in question to see if it mentioned McDonald’s, we leave this claim unrated.
Snopes contacted Oliver and McDonald’s to ask whether the fast food chain ever lost a lawsuit involving the TV chef, whether Oliver had ever proved McDonald’s food was “unfit for human consumption” or “toxic,” and to ask whether the restaurant used Select Lean Beef Trimmings in 2026. We await replies to our queries.
Oliver’s allegations
In the first episode of the second season of his program “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution,” in which Oliver attempted to reform school lunches and fight obesity in the U.S., the celebrity chef held a demonstration where he showed children and adults where on a cow different cuts of meat come from.
According to a segment of the episode (archived) that an internet user uploaded to YouTube in 2016, after spray-painting prices on a live cow to show where various cuts are found, Oliver then addressed what happens to the remainder of the animal.
He said (time code 00:01), “The public loved seeing that, that, equalling a steak. They never for a minute thought I would clear all the meat and cuts away and introduce them to a new world of food. It’s called pink slime.”
Oliver added (time code 00:12), “When you’ve broken down a whole beast, you’re left with trimmings. You know, in my industry, we call those trimmings [BLEEP].”
Speaking to a crowd of people, Oliver described the trimmings used for “pink slime” as (time code 00:36) “not fit for human consumption.”
Oliver went on to say that processing plants took trimmings that were “not fit for human consumption,” separated the meat from the fat, killed harmful bacteria using ammonium hydroxide and sold the end product, which he called “pink slime,” as human-grade food. Ammonium hydroxide is a watery solution that can be used to regulate acidity in food or in hair dye or cosmetics.
In an excerpt from the program included in a 2012 CBS report, Oliver said (time code 00:32), “We’re taking a product that would be sold at the cheapest form for dogs, and after this process we can give it to humans.”
(Snopes could not locate a complete video of the “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” episode in question. The clips we have found online appeared genuine and do not indicate any signs of possible manipulation.)
FDA says ammonium hydroxide ‘generally safe’
Around 11 months after Oliver’s episode discussing “pink slime” aired, the American Meat Institute President J. Patrick Boyle issued a statement to say that Boneless Lean Beef Trimmings is “a safe, wholesome and nutritious form of beef” that helps prevent food waste by utilizing trimmings that would otherwise go to waste.
The institute is a trade association that represents processors of meat and poultry.
Boyle’s statement says, similarly to Oliver’s demonstration, that processing Boneless Lean Beef Trimmings involves first separating the meat from the fat and using “food grade ammonium hydroxide gas” to destroy bacteria before blending the product into foods like ground beef.
However, he denied claims that the trimmings used to create Boneless Lean Beef Trimmings are not edible. The statement says:
Some recent media reports created a troubling and inaccurate picture, particularly in their use of the colloquial term ‘pink slime.’ The fact is, BLBT is beef. The beef trimmings that are used to make BLBT are absolutely edible. In fact, no process can somehow make an inedible meat edible; it’s impossible. In reality, the BLBT production process simply removes fat and makes the remaining beef more lean and suited to a variety of beef products that satisfy consumers’ desire for leaner foods.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which regulates ammonium hydroxide use in food, says the ingredient is “generally recognized as safe.” This was also the case when we last reported on these claims in 2018.
In sum …
While Oliver did call the cuts of meat used for Boneless Lean Beef Trimmings “not fit for human consumption” and claimed (time code 00:59) the product was “admitted to being in at least 70% of ground beef products” in a 2011 program, the episode excerpts Snopes reviewed do not show him specifically accusing McDonald’s of using the product or calling the fast food chain’s products toxic.
McDonald’s said in a 2013 statement it had not used Boneless Lean Beef Trimmings in its products since 2011.
We found no evidence McDonald’s had lost a lawsuit involving Oliver since then. Given the prominence of McDonald’s and Oliver, such a lawsuit would have been widely reported by reputable news media sources. That has not been the case.
While the FDA generally recognizes ammonium hydroxide, which is used to process Boneless Lean Beef Trimmings, as safe, reporting by food safety publication Food Safety News claimed that fast food giants like McDonalds, Taco Bell and Burger King had all stopped using the product by January 2012.
Both ABC, which broadcast Oliver’s program, and the chef himself have faced lawsuits over their coverage of the product.
ABC settled out of court in 2017 in a $1.9 billion defamation lawsuit brought by Beef Products Inc., a producer of Boneless Lean Beef Trimmings, over Oliver’s program and other stories the network had reported about the product in March and April 2012.
A man who Beef Products Inc. laid off after negative press heavily affected the company’s sales sued Oliver, ABC and other defendants in 2012. He dropped the case in 2013.
Between 1950 and 1979, late actor John Wayne bought 1,200 foreclosed homes for homeless veterans of the Vietnam War.
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In September 2026, a rumor spread that late actor John Wayne acquired 1,200 foreclosed homes between 1950 and 1979 and gave them to homeless Vietnam War veterans.
Several posts on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X made the claim, all sharing the same image with the same text. One X post said, “what a wonderful man he was” (archived):
The text on the image said the actor had allegedly spent $43 million on these homes:
After John Wayne died in 1979, bank records revealed: he’d bought 1,200 foreclosed houses from 1950-1979 and gave them to homeless Vietnam vets. Cash purchases. Never signed his name. Just left keys at VA hospitals with notes: “Welcome home. ” One vet said: “I was sleeping in my car. Found an envelope with keys and an address. Thought it was a scam. The house was mine. Paid in full.” Total spent: $43 million. His family didn’t know.
Meanwhile, several Snopes readers emailed and searched the website to confirm the veracity of the claim.
In sum, the story was false. Snopes found no evidence that Wayne had done such a thing before his death in 1979.
First, no reputable news outlet ever reported such an act of generosity on the part of the actor, according to searches on Google, DuckDuckGo and Yahoo. Neither did a search on Newspapers.com, the largest online newspaper archive. Had Wayne bought homes for Vietnam War veterans between 1950 and his death, this fact would have been widely reported in the intervening decades. This was not the case.
Further, one 1979 report from the New York Times said his estate was estimated at $6.8 million, casting further doubt on the claim, which said he had spent $43 million on the foreclosed homes.
A third reason to question the claim is that the meme said Wayne started buying houses for veterans of the Vietnam War in 1950, but the Vietnam War did not begin until 1954 and the U.S. did not start sending ground combat troops until the mid-1960s, according to Britannica.
The earliest instance of the meme we could find was a YouTube shortdated Sept. 7, 2026, from the channel Celeb Glamora, which appeared to share memes about celebrities with the exact same presentation and typeface. Most of them appeared to be fictitious inspirational stories about the celebrities’ generosity.
We contacted a manager of Celeb Glamora to learn more about the video’s creation, such as what software creators used and their motivations for sharing it. We will update this story if we receive a response.
Numerous videos authentically show a singer named George Paul performing on the NBC competition TV show “America’s Got Talent.”
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Throughout 2026, Snopes readers searched our website to find out whether numerous videos truly show a singer named George Paul performing music, including Christian songs, on NBC’s competition TV show “America’s Got Talent.”
Searches of DuckDuckGo and Google uncovered hundreds of videos attributed to Paul on social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok and YouTube, with his clips amassing hundreds of millions of views. Most posts supposedly feature appearances on “America’s Got Talent,” while others purportedly show him on “The Voice” or elsewhere.
In one of the channel’s most popular videos, from Sept. 15, Paul appears to sing a song called “Jesus Is Coming” on “America’s Got Talent.” Others have since reposted the clip on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
Reader searches asked if Paul truly appeared on “America’s Got Talent” or if the videos used artificial intelligence tools.
In sum, numerous pieces of evidence reveal the videos are fake. The clips feature green screen effects, inauthentic-sounding audio and possible AI usage. Searches of DuckDuckGo, Google and the YouTube channels for “America’s Got Talent” and “The Voice” found no evidence of Paul ever appearing on the two shows.
Snopes contacted Paul via private messages on Facebook and Instagram to ask questions about his videos. We will update this article if we receive further information.
Paul’s videos contain signs of fakery
A close inspection of Paul’s “Jesus Is Coming” video found lighting and image quality disparities between the subject and the background — differences quite evident in Paul’s past TikTok videos from as far back as 2022. Such disparities are not visible in authentic clips from “America’s Got Talent,” some of which are included below.
Those quality disparities between the subject and the background indicate Paul used a green screen effect to superimpose his image, whether shot with a camera or generated with AI, into a moment from one of the TV shows that originally featured other performers. Additionally, green visual artifacts appear to very faintly show up around Paul’s neck and on his cheeks during close-up shots.
The “Jesus Is Coming” video features a handful of moments showing “America’s Got Talent” judges, the crowd and others. For example, the clip begins with a shot of judge Simon Cowell holding his red-tinted sunglasses against his forehead and slightly opening his mouth. A reverse image search found that exact same moment originally appears during “America’s Got Talent” auditions earlier in 2026 prior to a performance by musical duo Nyjah Music & Zyah Rhythm, as seen at the 8:18 mark in a video on the show’s official YouTube channel.
In Paul’s video, he also uses a shot of model and past “America’s Got Talent” host Tyra Banks and another man watching from stage left at the 2:01 mark. This moment originates from another authentic “America’s Got Talent” clip from 2018. Actor Sofía Vergara also appears in Paul’s video, despite Vergara and Banks never being part of the show at the same time.
In other examples of Paul’s fakery, one video features him using a woman’s vocals on “The Voice,” apparently achieved either with AI-generated content or by using a real woman’s performance. Another clip shows three different depictions of Paul wearing the same clothes, standing next to each other on a stage. One post even shows Paul supposedly entering the stage from nowhere.
Paul’s Facebook page identifies him as residing in both Toronto and Kenya, as well as attending a Kenyan university. Selecting “Digital creator” at the top of his profile, then “Transparency and privacy policy,” shows information for the East African country. His YouTube handle, @Georgepaulke, also appears to reference Kenya in the last two letters.
Possible origins of ‘Jesus Is Coming’ song
Using Paul’s video, the music-recognition app Shazam found an apparent match for “Jesus Is Coming” in a Sept. 24, 2026, release from a creator named Abraham H.
Abraham H. said via email that he teases his tracks online before releasing them, adding that some people have generated duplicates of “Jesus Is Coming” with AI prior to his full release. He claimed he authentically sang on his own track and that he sometimes uses AI “when it comes to developing background,” referencing choirs. He also said he has used AI music generators to enhance his voice in other tracks.
It was not possible to independently verify that the song originated from Abraham H.
For further reading, Snopes previously looked into whether a video truly shows U.S. President Donald Trump singing a song, titled “This Is Who Jesus Is to Me,” while playing a piano on the North Lawn of the White House.
Christopher Nolan is directing a standalone “Star Wars” movie about Darth Vader.
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Is Christopher Nolan directing a new standalone “Star Wars” film about the iconic villain Darth Vader? Did “Star Wars” creator George Lucas lobby Nolan to make the movie? Is actor Hayden Christensen set to put the Sith lord’s suit back on?
In late September 2026, social media users shared a rumor claiming Nolan planned to direct a film titled, “Star Wars: Darth Vader.” That movie, should Nolan lead the charge on creating it, would follow the resounding box office success of his summer epic, “The Odyssey.”
For example, on Sept. 23, an X user posted (archived) a Turkish-language message translating to English as follows, “Christopher Nolan, the director of the new Star Wars trilogy titled STAR WARS: DARTH VADER!” The post received millions of views.
(@cinemovieas via X)
A popular Instagram post also presented (archived) the image caption, “Christopher Nolan Set to Direct Standalone Darth Vader Film.”
In sum, we found no evidence that this rumor was true. While hopefulrumblings about Nolan one day directing a “Star Wars” film were notnew, a search of X indicated an account with “satire” and “parody” labels shared the earliest post promoting this claim.
That post (archived), appearing on the @ChaosCrave_ X account, described the fabricated idea for the movie as “an R-rated, dark-fantasy exploration of the Sith Lord’s peak Imperial era”:
George Lucas is reportedly lobbying for Christopher Nolan to direct a standalone STAR WARS: DARTH VADER film.
Hayden Christensen is reportedly attached to lead the project, marking his return to the suit for an R-rated, dark-fantasy exploration of the Sith Lord’s peak Imperial era.
The post displayed a slideshow including photos of Lucas, Nolan behind an IMAX camera and Christensen, as well as an image of the “Star Wars” logo.
(@ChaosCrave_ via X)
The @ChaosCrave_ user profile featured a disclaimer describing the account’s content as “parody” and “satirical news.”
In an X direct message, @ChaosCrave_ confirmed starting the rumor, saying, “Yes, I made it up completely by myself.” We also emailed representatives for Lucas and Nolan to ask about the claim and will update this article if we receive further information.
Days prior to the claim’s inception, on Sept. 19, Christensen addressed general rumors of reprising his role as Vader — with no mention of Nolan.
In an E! News red carpet interview during the opening night celebration for the new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, a reporter asked, “We’re hearing rumors of a solo Vader film. Are you interested? Like, what can you tell us?” Christensen answered, “Oh, I think those are just rumors.”
The reporter then asked, “If it were to come true though, would that be something that you’d be interested in down the line?” Christensen responded, “Of course, yeah. I would be thrilled to get to do that but right now those are just rumors.”
For further reading, we previously reported on whether Colin McGregor, the brother of young Obi-Wan Kenobi actor Ewan McGregor, truly used the call sign “Obi-Two” in the Royal Air Force.
Actor Christian Bale helped build 12 homes in a $22 million village in Palmdale, California, that aims to keep siblings in the foster-care system together.
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In September 2026, a heartwarming claim (archived) circulated online that “Batman” actor Christian Bale helped build 12 homes in a $22 million village in Palmdale, California, that aimed to keep siblings in the foster care system together.
For example, one Threads post about the alleged project was captioned:
I absolutely LOVE this. Christian Bale spent roughly 17 years fighting to make this happen. This week, his foster-care village opened in Palmdale, California: 12 homes built specifically to help keep siblings together when they enter foster care.
The claim was true. Bale and Together California, a charity founded by the actor; his wife, Sibi; and UCLA Dr. Eric Esrailian, broke ground on the project in 2024, and Bale cut the ribbon on the homes on Sept. 9, 2026.According to Together California, the village, located near Palmdale, features 12 homes and a community center. It was expected to start welcoming children from October 2026. The project was estimated to cost $22 million at the time of the groundbreaking, according to internationalmedia.
Bale told (archived) The Associated Press at the ribbon-cutting that the project had been underway for almost 20 years and that he was originally inspired to take part by his daughter. Bale said:
Just looking at my little girl, she was 3 at the time, she’s 21 now, took that long to get this together, but to know, imagine if she got taken and then on top of that getting split from siblings, know, absolutely shameful.
CBS News reported in 2025 that “trained foster parents” would take care of the children living in the village.
According to AC Martin, the architects on the project, Together California’s “Village for Brothers and Sisters” would feature 12 townhouse units for children in foster care, two studio units for young adults transitioning out of the foster system, a 7,000-square-foot community building and outdoor space.
Sources
Actor Christian Bale Opens Together California, Foster Care Village in Palmdale Aimed at Keeping Siblings Together | Abc7.Com. https://abc7.com/amp/post/actor-christian-bale-opens-together-california-foster-care-village-palmdale-aimed-keeping-siblings/19816433/. Accessed 15 Sept. 2026.
DALTON, ANDREW. “Christian Bale Breaks Ground on Foster Homes He’s Fought for 16 Years to See Built.” AP News, 7 Feb. 2024, https://apnews.com/article/christian-bale-foster-homes-palmdale-dark-knight-0f7e046c7bd1c636efd78d44947fc1a6.
Gardner, Chris. “Christian Bale Breaks Ground on 16-Year Passion Project: 12 New Homes for Foster Children.” The Hollywood Reporter, 8 Feb. 2024, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/lifestyle-news/christian-bale-foster-children-village-together-california-1235819256/.
“Our Village.” Together California, https://togethercalifornia.org/our-village/. Accessed 19 June 2025.
McLean, Tessa. “After 17 Years, Christian Bale’s California Housing Village Is Close to Opening.” SFGATE, 29 Jul. 2025, https://www.sfgate.com/california/article/christian-bale-building-housing-complex-california-20789971.php.
Shoard, Catherine. “Christian Bale Unveils Plans to Build 12 Foster Homes in California.” The Guardian, 8 Feb. 2024. The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/feb/08/christian-bale-to-build-12-foster-homes-in-california.
Smith, Tracy, and Jennifer Earl. Christian Bale’s on a Mission to Keep Foster Siblings Together. For Him, It’s the Role of a Lifetime. – CBS News. 18 May 2025, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/christian-bales-on-a-mission-to-keep-foster-siblings-together-for-him-its-the-role-of-a-lifetime/.
Together California. “Together California Had the Incredible Opportunity to Sit down with CBS Sunday Morning and Speak about the Mission That Drives Us Every Day. .” Facebook, 7 June 2025, https://www.facebook.com/togetherca/posts/pfbid02fFJzkhfyKMsDxxF2SGJThzf9T7UWNyqjSFCZE2XvwNHue2d1G63hkZyg6HVH6c2Cl.
Together California: A Village for Brothers & Sisters. https://www.acmartin.com/portfolio/together-california-village-brothers-sisters. Accessed 19 June 2025.
Williams, Martha. “Christian Bale Breaks Ground on 12 Foster Homes in California.” Mail Online, 9 Feb. 2024, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13066491/bruce-wayne-christian-bale-foster-homes.html.
In mid-September 2026, music streaming company Spotify removed the music of Ed Sheeran from its platform.
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A rumor spread in mid-September 2026 that Spotify removed the music of Ed Sheeran from its platform after musician Macklemore was dropped as an opening act on his tour. Macklemore had expressed support for the Palestinian cause during a concert.
For example, an Instagram post claimed on Sept. 16: “Spotify has removed Ed Sheerans songs from the platform. Macklemore was removed from Ed Sheeran’s U.S. tour after making pro-Palestinian statements onstage. Several venues reportedly objected to keeping him on the lineup” (archived):
(Instagram user ragebaitnews)
Some users seemed to interpret the claim that Spotify had reacted to Macklemore’s cancellation from Sheeran’s tour by removing Sheeran’s music from its streaming platform as true. Snopes readers searched the website to confirm its legitimacy.
To check whether the claim was true, we first used search engines such as DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo. If Spotify had really taken down Sheeran’s music, journalists with reputable news outlets, such as The Associated Press or Reuters, would have widely reported on it, and those search inquiries would have uncovered such evidence. This was not the case.
We identified the claim’s original source: an X account that recounted the scenario about Spotify banning Sheeran’s music described its content as “parody & satire.”
Snopes reached out to Hoops Crave for its response to the fact that some people mistook the satirical story as real news. We also attempted to contact Sheeran and Spotify for their responses to the false story circulating online. We will update this story if we receive responses.
Snopes has debunked similar pieces of media before. For example, in August 2026, we alerted readers to a fake story about Disney buying Dollywood, with comparable origins.
Singer Dolly Parton became the legal guardian of an abandoned newborn baby and promised to cover all of the child’s living expenses until they reach age 18.
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In August and September 2026, social media users recirculated a rumor claiming that country music legend Dolly Parton became the legal guardian of an abandoned newborn and promised to cover the child’s living expenses until age 18.
The posts started spreading around the time Parton died on Aug. 25, 2026.
“This child was brought into the world under the hardest of circumstances. No child should be left alone. I will make sure they are loved, protected, and given every chance to thrive.” Dolly Parton spoke these words straight from the heart.
She said this just a few weeks after a newborn baby was found abandoned with no name or family. Dolly, the famous country music star, announced that she had taken the extraordinary step of becoming the child’s legal guardian. Dolly Parton made a huge promise to the baby: she will personally pay for every single living cost—food, housing, healthcare, and education—until the child is 18 years old.
(Facebook user Forbidden Stories)
Over the months, similar claims spread on social media platforms including Facebook, Threads and X.
However, there was no truth to this story. The claim that Parton became the legal guardian of an abandoned newborn was not supported by any credible evidence. No legitimate news outlets reported the alleged incident, and the story existed solely in social media posts and questionable websites. The story was also not corroborated by any statements from Parton or her representatives. Furthermore, it spread alongside photos of Parton with the alleged newborn created using artificial intelligence. As a result, we’ve rated the claim false.
That said, the false claim may have drawn loose inspiration from a story Parton told in multiple interviews about finding an abandoned infant, as we’ll explain in more detail below. That story did not involve Parton becoming the baby’s guardian.
We have reached out to Parton’s representatives for comment and will update this article if we receive a response.
AI-generated images helped spread the rumor
Google searches using various combinations of relevant keywords such as “Dolly Parton,” “guardian” and “abandoned baby” produced no relevant results. Additionally, the collage of images purporting to show Parton holding a newborn displayed several visual anomalies commonly associated with AI-generated content, such as unnaturally smooth skin texture and inconsistencies in lighting and shadows.
When we investigated the rumor in May 2025, an analysis using Hive, an AI-detection platform, concluded with 100% certainty that the images were “likely to be AI-generated.”
(Facebook user NCIS Daily News, Hive)
However, one photograph included in a collage spreading with the rumor in 2026 was real. The image showed Parton with her longtime friend, Vanderbilt University Medical Center doctor Naji Abumrad. It had no connection to the alleged abandoned newborn.
Origin of the rumor
The origin of the rumor may lie in a real — but unrelated — story Parton shared in past interviews. In 2011, during an interview with Windy City Times, Parton recalled a story from the 1970s, around the time her hit song “Jolene” was released. Parton explained that she returned home one day and found a baby in a box at her gate. The note attached to the baby read, “My name is Jolene, my momma has left me here and she wants you to have me.” Parton described how she immediately called human services, who took custody of the child, adding that she never found out what happened afterward and had no further involvement with the case.
Windy City Times: […] What is the craziest thing a fan has ever asked of you?
Dolly Parton: There are all kinds of things that people ask me to do but I tell this story and it’s a true story but freaky. Years ago when I first started being a big star I had fans that were fanatical. It was when “Jolene” was a big hit. We came home one day and there was a baby in a box at our gate with a note in it. The note said, “My name is Jolene, my momma has left me here and she wants you to have me.” Of course, we all freaked out!
We immediately called Human Services and took care of the baby until they got there. We never did know or hear anything about it. I knew nothing else. […]
Parton elaborated on how disturbing the situation had been for her and emphasized her efforts to distance herself from any further involvement:
Dolly Parton: Can you imagine yourself in that situation? It wasn’t like it was a kitten or a puppy dog. It was a baby named Jolene!
Windy City Times: Well, maybe Jolene will be coming to your concert.
Dolly Parton:I have often wondered that. I don’t think that person would ever even know about the way that went down. There was no way to track it and I didn’t want to. I couldn’t take the bay [sic] and I didn’t want to be involved. I wanted the police and the people involved to know we had nothing to do with it. We just made our statement but to answer your question that was the wildest thing.
Parton retold the same story in an interview with Larry King, offering additional details.
She said that at the time, she thought someone had left food at the gate, only to find a baby in a basket. Parton explained that she went straight to the house and asked someone to call child services and the police. Authorities later arrived and took custody of the baby, and Parton never learned what happened to the child.
This real event, however, had no connection to the rumor that Parton became the legal guardian of an abandoned newborn. It appears that the old story may have served as loose inspiration for the fabricated one, which took Parton’s previous experience and reshaped it into a viral rumor with the use of AI-generated images.
For further reading, after Parton died in August 2026, we published a collection of 20 rumors and claims we had investigated about her over the years.
In September 1992, musician Eric Clapton invited 16-year-old Sarah Mitchell, who was deaf, onstage at a concert in Birmingham, England, and performed for her.
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In September 2026, social media users recirculated a story alleging that musician Eric Clapton once interrupted a concert for a deaf teenage fan.
One Facebook post with the story read, “Eric Clapton was lost inside a guitar solo when something in the crowd pulled him out of the music,” directing readers to an article that started:
Eric Clapton Stopped Mid-Song for a Deaf Girl Who Could Feel His Music
Eric Clapton was lost inside a guitar solo when something in the crowd pulled him out of the music.
Twelve thousand people filled the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. They were standing, shouting, clapping, moving as one body under the lights. The noise was overwhelming. The energy was electric.
And in the middle of it all, one teenage girl sat completely still.
It was September 23, 1992. Clapton was deep into his Journeyman tour, riding the momentum of sold-out arenas and roaring applause. He had already played through fan favorites, the band locked in, the night unfolding exactly as expected.
Except for her.
Third row. Center section. A young girl who wasn’t clapping. Wasn’t swaying. Wasn’t reacting at all.
Her name was Sarah Mitchell. She was sixteen years old. And she was profoundly deaf.
Born without hearing, Sarah had never experienced music the way most people did. She had never heard a guitar string vibrate through air. Never heard applause. Never heard her own voice.
(Facebook user Youness ER)
The article further claimed that during a show in Birmingham, England, on Sept. 23, 1992, Clapton stopped midsong and brought a “profoundly deaf” 16-year-old named Sarah Mitchell onto the stage. Clapton supposedly positioned an amplifier behind her chair so she could feel the music’s vibrations and then played a song for her as the arena fell silent.
Over the months, the story spread on numerous social media platforms, including X, LinkedIn and YouTube. Some posts featured links leading to articles on advertisement-filled websites.
Snopes readers also searched our website for information about whether the claim was true.
However, the story about Clapton amounted to fiction. Searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Yahoo found no credible media outlets reporting about such an event, and several key details in the story conflicted with well-documented information about Clapton’s tours and Birmingham performances in 1992.
The fabricated story resembled glurge, which Dictionary.com defines as “stories, often sent by email, that are supposed to be true and uplifting, but which are often fabricated and sentimental.” It was one of hundreds of similarly fake stories about celebrities on Facebook that aim to generate views and advertising revenue via websites linked in posts.
Timeline doesn’t match tour records
The story placed the alleged moment on Sept. 23, 1992, at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. However, Clapton’s official timeline shows the Journeyman World Tour opened at the NEC on Jan. 14, 1990 — not September 1992 — and ran for three consecutive nights. Fan-compiled tour listings corroborated the dates and location. Moreover, the posts framed the alleged moment as part of Clapton’s Journeyman tour, which ended in March 1991 and did not extend into September 1992.
Clapton did play in Birmingham in early February 1992, but those shows were at the National Indoor Arena, not the NEC. He later returned to the NEC for a series of benefit concerts in October 1992— dates that don’t match the rumored Sept. 23 appearance.
The story also isn’t mentioned in “Eric Clapton: The Autobiography,” first published in the United Kingdom in 2007. Because the book covers key moments from Clapton’s career and touring life, the encounter described in the social media posts would likely have been included if it had actually happened.
AI-generated content helped spread story
The claim frequently circulated alongside an image showing Clapton with a teenage girl that appeared to have been generated using artificial intelligence. Hive Moderation, an online AI detector, determined that the image was highly likely to be AI-generated.
(Facebook user Dena Wells)
In August 2026, a nearly-identical image spread with the story, but this time with a black-and-white filter and a “Curiously Unusual Wonders” watermark:
(Facebook user Amila K Madige)
Similarly, most of the accompanying text was likely AI-generated, according to the AI detector ZeroGPT. (Research shows AI-detection software is imperfect. Readers should consider the tools’ results with skepticism.)
(ZeroGPT)
The text’s tone, structure and emotional language further pointed to AI authorship.
Finally, the story appears to have originated from a YouTube channel presenting itself as a source of “true stories About Eric Clapton that will restore your faith in humanity,” but the video provided no verifiable evidence of the event. The channel’s other content follows the same clickbait pattern, with sensational, vague titles and attention-grabbing thumbnails designed to generate clicks. Many of the thumbnails also appear to be AI-generated or heavily manipulated, which is consistent with a channel producing content that’s primarily focused on generating views:
5 February 1992 – Eric Clapton & His Band – Where’s Eric! https://whereseric.com/tour/1992-5/. Accessed 19 Jan. 2026.
14 January 1990 – Eric Clapton & His Band – Where’s Eric! https://whereseric.com/tour/1990/. Accessed 19 Jan. 2026.
AI Detector – Trusted AI Checker for ChatGPT, GPT5 & Gemini. https://www.zerogpt.com/. Accessed 19 Jan. 2026.
Eric Clapton : The Autobiography. With Internet Archive, London : Arrow Books, 2007. Internet Archive, http://archive.org/details/ericclaptonautob0000unse.
Kar, Sujita Kumar, et al. “How Sensitive Are the Free AI-Detector Tools in Detecting AI-Generated Texts? A Comparison of Popular AI-Detector Tools.” Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine, vol. 47, no. 3, May 2025, pp. 275–78. PubMed Central, https://doi.org/10.1177/02537176241247934.
“Timeline (1990s).” Eric Clapton, https://ericclapton.com/pages/timeline-1990s. Accessed 19 Jan. 2026.
Winter, Emery. “Did Stephen Colbert Launch Sanctuary for Abandoned and Abused Dogs?” Snopes, 30 Dec. 2025, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/colbert-animal-sanctuary-dogs/.
Wrona, Aleksandra. “Bogus Story Claims Trumps Volunteered at Pennsylvania Orphanage on New Year’s Day.” Snopes, 11 Jan. 2026, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/donald-melania-trump-orphanage/.
