Reality Check by NewsGuard

This week’s episode covers a network of AI content farms that are churning out slop articles about Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance — and the big brands that are funding such operations. We also dive into a recent NewsGuard report about an apparent Chinese influence operation involving 294 phony Threads accounts disguised as beautiful women that are poised to push Taiwanese voters toward China. Get f...

This week’s episode discusses how high-profile conservatives, including President Donald Trump, falsely claimed that California’s primary elections were rigged against Republican candidates. We also cover a Russian-made hoax that a top French soccer player accused France’s president of sexual harassment. We end by exploring a recent NewsGuard audit of leading AI chatbots, finding that the models r...

This week’s episode explores how a database vulnerable to manipulation is being used by health hoax sites to draw a false correlation between GLP-1 weight-loss drugs and suicidal thoughts. We also cover Russia’s efforts to influence Armenia’s upcoming parliamentary elections, including by impersonating credible outlets to attack the Western-leading prime minister. Get full access to NewsGuard's Re...

This week’s episode covers a recent NewsGuard/YouGov poll that found that one in four Americans believe Trump “staged” the attempt on his life at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Our AI hosts break down the striking partisan and age divides revealed in the survey, including that 42 percent of Democrats believe the attempted assassination at the July 2024 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, was “...

This week’s episode covers the BlueAnon conspiracy that the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was orchestrated by the Trump administration, which received more than 90 million views across the social media platform X. We also discuss how anti-vax social media accounts are falsely claiming that rising cancer rates are caused by COVID vaccines. Get full access to NewsGuard's Reality...

This week’s episode covers a JAMA study’s finding that health care-related institutions, ranging from pharmaceutical companies to government health agencies, spent tens of millions in advertising dollars on news websites flagged by NewsGuard for spreading health misinformation. We also discuss Russian disinformation surrounding Hungary’s parliamentary elections, including that the anti-Putin party...

This week’s episode covers how misleading content including AI-generated visuals are being weaponized across the Iran conflict — and how that’s reshaping what people trust online. From a recycled battlefield image falsely portrayed as a U.S. soldier begging Iran for mercy to a viral AI-generated image of a missile inscribed with the slogan “No Kings,” we break down how these narratives spread acro...

This week’s episode covers a twist in the AI misinformation playbook: false claims that authentic content is actually AI-generated. From a real video of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused of being a deepfake video to AI-manipulated graphics overstating global fuel shortages, we break down two methods for how state-linked actors are using AI narratives to distort reality. Get full ac...

This week’s episode covers NewsGuard’s extensive coverage on false claims surrounding the Iran war, from misleading visuals to AI tools repeating disinformation. We also tackle how Iranian state media has evolved to produce convincing AI propaganda targeted at its own population. Get full access to NewsGuard's Reality Check at www.newsguardrealitycheck.com/subscribe

This week’s episode covers NewsGuard’s audit of leading AI audio bots, which found that ChatGPT and Gemini advance false claims on topics in the news about 50 percent of the time, while Alexa+ appears to have effective guardrails. We also report on a viral iPhone hoax originating from an Indonesian-based TikTok account that is attempting to impersonate Apple. Get full access to NewsGuard's Reality...

This week’s episode covers NewsGuard’s reporting on the Jan. 30, 2026, release of the “Epstein files” and the wave of AI-generated content that followed, falsely linking prominent political leaders to Jeffrey Epstein and his crimes. It also explores a NewsGuard red-teaming effort to assess how easily top AI image generators can be used to create Epstein deepfakes. Get full access to NewsGuard's Re...

This week’s episode covers a Jan. 22 NewsGuard report that assessed whether leading chatbots ChatGPT, Grok, and Gemini can be counted on to determine the authenticity of videos made with OpenAI’s Sora text-to-video generator. (Hint: They can not). We also examine false claims coming out of Russia targeting Europe’s anxieties over Greenland — all of which impersonate legitimate news outlets to dece...

This week’s episode covers NewsGuard’s reporting on the use of AI images and out-of-context visuals to falsely portray the capture of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro. We also detail how AI images of the Jan. 7 ICE shooting in Minneapolis attempted to reframe events and falsely identify the ICE agent involved. Get full access to NewsGuard's Reality Check at www.newsguardrealitycheck.com/subscribe

This week’s episode covers false claims about the horrific Hanukkah massacre in Sydney, Australia, with falsehoods aimed at the victims, the alleged shooters, and the man who disarmed one of the perpetrators. We break down how these narratives spread in different corners of the internet and why they continued to gain traction despite clear evidence to the contrary. Get full access to NewsGuard's R...

This week’s episode covers NewsGuard’s False Claim of the Week — the falsehood that 59 percent of undocumented immigrants collect SNAP food-stamp benefits. We also expose how Russia’s propaganda outlet RT celebrated its 20th anniversary with a life-sized megaphone beside the Kremlin and celebrity guests in attendance. We end by debunking a viral false health claim, spread by Health Secretary Rober...

This week’s episode covers NewsGuard’s False Claim of the Week — the falsehood that 59 percent of undocumented immigrants collect SNAP food-stamp benefits. We also expose how Russia’s propaganda outlet RT celebrated its 20th anniversary with a life-sized megaphone beside the Kremlin and celebrity guests in attendance. We end by debunking a viral false health claim, spread by Health Secretary Rober...

This week’s episode covers NewsGuard’s False Claim of the Week — the falsehood that 59 percent of undocumented immigrants collect SNAP food-stamp benefits. We also expose how Russia’s propaganda outlet RT celebrated its 20th anniversary with a life-sized megaphone beside the Kremlin and celebrity guests in attendance. We end by debunking a viral false health claim, spread by Health Secretary Rober...

This week’s episode covers the ease with which OpenAI’s Sora can generate realistic deepfake videos designed to spread false claims in the news at scale. We also unpack how a fabricated corruption claim about Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled from a fringe Turkish outlet through Russian media to the mainstream platform MSN operated by Microsoft  and a member of Congress, before returning to Moscow as s...

This week’s episode covers the unfounded hysteria surrounding a rumored spike in Tylenol overdoses among pregnant women supposedly looking to spite President Trump. We also unpack a prominent false claim about the Michigan Mormon church shooting, highlighting the growing trend of assigning fake political identities to suspects in the aftermath of mass tragedies. Get full access to NewsGuard's Real...

This week’s episode covers false claims about Charlie Kirk’s assassination, including claims originating from Russian, Chinese, and Iranian state media that aim to sow division and undermine Western allies. Get full access to NewsGuard's Reality Check at www.newsguardrealitycheck.com/subscribe

This podcast is created based on NewsGuard's Reality Check newsletter using Google's NotebookLM AI tool. Each podcast's content is closely reviewed by NewsGuard's team of journalists for accuracy. For more information on NewsGuard's use of AI to make these podcasts, read our commentary " AI Made This Podcast — But We Made Sure it Got it Right ." We launched Reality Check after seeing how much inte...

This podcast is created based on NewsGuard's Reality Check newsletter using Google's NotebookLM AI tool. Each podcast's content is closely reviewed by NewsGuard's team of journalists for accuracy. For more information on NewsGuard's use of AI to make these podcasts, read our commentary " AI Made This Podcast — But We Made Sure it Got it Right ." We launched Reality Check after seeing how much inte...

This podcast is created based on NewsGuard's Reality Check newsletter using Google's NotebookLM AI tool. Each podcast's content is closely reviewed by NewsGuard's team of journalists for accuracy. For more information on NewsGuard's use of AI to make these podcasts, read our commentary " AI Made This Podcast — But We Made Sure it Got it Right ." We launched Reality Check after seeing how much inte...

This podcast is created based on NewsGuard's Reality Check newsletter using Google's NotebookLM AI tool. Each podcast's content is closely reviewed by NewsGuard's team of journalists for accuracy. For more information on NewsGuard's use of AI to make these podcasts, read our commentary " AI Made This Podcast — But We Made Sure it Got it Right ." We launched Reality Check after seeing how much inte...

This podcast is created based on NewsGuard's Reality Check newsletter using Google's NotebookLM AI tool. Each podcast's content is closely reviewed by NewsGuard's team of journalists for accuracy. For more information on NewsGuard's use of AI to make these podcasts, read our commentary " AI Made This Podcast — But We Made Sure it Got it Right ." We launched Reality Check after seeing how much inte...