ABC misplaced $27 million in promoting income following the U.S. presidential debate moderated by ABC Information in September 2024.
A rumor that ABC misplaced $27 million in promoting income following the Sept. 10, 2024, U.S. presidential debate was circulating on-line within the days after the competition.
In accordance with the declare, advertisers pulled their commercials because of the “unfair” method ABC Information anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis moderated the controversy, purportedly offering favorable remedy to Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Donald Trump.
For instance, on Sept. 13, a Fb person posted a screenshot to a bunch named BERKELEY COUNTY within the KNOW, which learn: “ABC misplaced $27M in advert income & will not host debates after advertisers pulled adverts from the community because of the rigged debate on Tuesday, September tenth.” The person’s caption mentioned: “As they need to, go woke and going broke.” It was unclear which a part of the controversy they perceived as “woke.”
On Threads, one other person posted (archived): “ABC misplaced $27M in advert income after advertisers pulled adverts from the community after the way in which they hosted the controversy on Tuesday, September tenth, stating that it wasn’t carried out pretty. GREAT. WONDERFUL. I COULD NOT BE HAPPIER.” PolitiFact additionally talked about this submit of their reporting about the identical rumor.
Different examples of the claim appeared elsewhere on X and Facebook.
Nonetheless, there was no proof to credibly help this rumor. Reasonably, it originated with SpaceXMania.com — a web site describing its output as satirical in nature, together with on its “About Us” page and as a label above articles. The Facebook page for SpaceXMania.com additionally mentioned: “We concentrate on SATIRE.”
SpaceXMania.com posted an article concerning the ABC rumor on Sept. 12 — two days after the controversy. The story featured the headline: “ABC Loses $27 Million in Promoting After Debate Fallout, ‘Will not Be Internet hosting Any Debates In The Future.'” The article learn:
In a improvement that may solely be described as peak 2024 chaos, ABC has discovered itself $27 million poorer after shedding 5 main advertisers within the wake of the most recent presidential debate. The community, as soon as a beacon of impartiality and trusted information, is now left clutching its pearls—and its checking account—after an explosive night of real-time fact-checking, heated exchanges, and the collapse of company goodwill.
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However as a substitute of offering the spectacle advertisers had paid handsomely for, ABC’s moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis, did one thing really outrageous: they began fact-checking.
The part of the satirical article that referred to as fact-checking “really outrageous” poked enjoyable at on-line customers who didn’t respect Muir and Davis correcting Trump concerning his false or unfounded rumors, resembling the previous president’s assertion that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, dined on cats and dogs, amongst different rumors.
For additional studying with regards to ABC Information and the identical debate, we investigated one other false rumor that an “ABC Information whistleblower” died in a automobile crash whereas making an attempt to show the controversy with a “report” or “affidavit” that confirmed the community offered Harris with the questions upfront.
For background, right here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources that decision their output humorous or satirical.
