WASHINGTON \u2014 A dramatic claim circulating online says that former U.S. President Joe Biden, his wife Jill Biden and one of their grandchildren have died in a plane crash near the Canadian border.Instead, the claim appears to be circulating through social media\u2026 The post is written in the style of a breaking-news alert and begins with language such as \u201cJust In\u201d and \u201cFox News,\u201d followed by the claim that the former president and members of his family \u201cperish\u201d in a plane crash. The wording is designed to create an immediate sense of urgency. But there is a major problem with the story: There is no credible evidence currently confirming that Joe Biden, Jill Biden or a Biden grandchild died in such a crash. A search of current reporting does not produce a credible Fox News report, government announcement, aviation authority statement or major news report confirming the alleged deaths.<\/p>\n
Instead, the claim appears to be circulating through social media, where posts can be copied and reshared thousands of times before anyone verifies whether the underlying story is genuine. That distinction is extremely important when the claim concerns the death of a former president and members of his family. The wording of the viral post is particularly striking. Canadian authorities would also be expected to provide information if\u2026 It presents itself as a breaking-news announcement and attributes the information to Fox News. A Facebook post currently visible in search results repeats essentially the same claim, stating that former President Joe Biden, his wife and his grandson supposedly died in a plane crash \u201cfew minutes ago\u201d near Canada. But a social-media post saying that Fox News reported something is not the same thing as an actual Fox News report.<\/p>\n
Verifying Extraordinary Claims
\nThis is one of the most important lessons for readers navigating breaking news online. Anyone can write \u201cFox News says\u201d at the beginning of a Facebook post. That does not mean Fox News actually published the story That does not mean Fox News actually published the story. For an extraordinary claim involving a former president, credible confirmation would normally be expected from multiple major news organizations and official sources. That confirmation is absent here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON \u2014 A dramatic claim circulating online says that former U.S. President Joe Biden, his wife Jill Biden and one of their grandchildren have died in a plane crash near the Canadian border.Instead, the claim appears to be circulating through social media\u2026 The post is written in the style of a breaking-news alert and begins […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12220"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12223,"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12220\/revisions\/12223"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}