Fact Check: Rumor Alleges Reba McEntire Faces 'Serious Charges' and Asked for Prayers Regarding Fox News Lawsuit. Here's the Truth
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Claim:
Country singer Reba McEntire is facing "serious charges" and asked for prayers regarding a lawsuit involving Fox News and one of its hosts, Martha MacCallum.
Rating:
In April 2024, a paid advertisement with a photo of country singer and "The Voice" reality TV coach Reba McEntire was displayed on Facebook, claiming, "Reba McEntire faces serious charges, prayers."
Users who clicked on the Facebook ad were led to what looked like an article on FoxNews.com. The page displayed the Fox News design, colors and logo. The article's byline showed the name Brit Hume, the news network's chief political analyst.
The headline read, "Reba McEntire's solution to reverse dementia sparks huge lawsuit pressure on Fox. She finally fought back!" The article said Fox News host Martha MacCallum planned on filing a lawsuit against both McEntire and the network for violating some sort of contract, supposedly about McEntire's creation of products named either Makers CBD Gummies or Bloom CBD Gummies.
However, this was not a genuine article published by Fox News. The article posted on the scam website lasaa.ink. According to a search of lasaa.ink with the ICANN Lookup tool, the domain's registrant may reside in China.
As indicated by our "false" fact-check rating at the top of this article, the story about McEntire, MacCallum, Fox News, Hume, the lawsuit and CBD gummies was completely false. Scammers created the Facebook ad and fake article in an effort to fool users into believing in snake-oil promises about the ability to "reverse dementia," all to try to lead them into unknowingly signing up for monthly subscriptions for CBD gummies products — in this case Makers CBD Gummies and Bloom CBD Gummies.
McEntire has never had anything to do with CBD gummies, keto gummies or other similar products. Scammers used her image and likeness improperly to sell gummies, just as scammers had done in the past with Oprah Winfrey, Kelly Clarkson, Ree Drummond, Dr. Mehmet Oz and so many other famous people.
Further, Snopes has been tracking these scams for years. Meta has been accepting money to display these very same kinds of false and scammy paid ads about McEntire and gummies since at least August 2022, as we previously reported. These sorts of false and potentially defamatory ads specifically about the country singer have been showing to users – with apparently little to no resistance from the multi-billion dollar social media company – for at least 20 months. Many other ads improperly featuring other celebrities have been showing to users for years as well.
Part of the false and scammy article on lasaa.ink read as follows:
Her product, Makers CBD Gummies [or Bloom CBD Gummies], has been flying off the shelves within minutes and Reba McEntire says right now her struggle is to be able to keep up with demand. Her CBD wellness line is 90% cheaper and five times more effective than those being offered by Bayer and other "Big Pharma" companies.Martha MacCallum was furious after seeing multiple sponsors cease sponsorship and starting to sue Fox News Network. Martha is now calling for Reba McEntire to be indicted, saying: "I am happy Reba McEntire found something to replace prescriptions, but her announcement was a direct breach of contract. Fox News should fire her immediately and she should formally apologize."Reba McEntire appeared on Live TV again the next day, not to apologize, but to offer viewers discounted samples.
One tactic scammers often use is to mention in their scam pitches the words "Big Pharma," "Big Energy," "Big Tech" or other similar phrases. Scammers include these phrases not as genuine warnings about the problems associated with "Big Pharma" and the others but rather to toy with the emotions of potential victims, all to try to get them to believe purchasing a product will cut into the profits of the tycoons sitting at the top of said industries.
In February 2024, McEntire issued a statement on social media telling her followers to not fall for scams involving gummies. Unfortunately, such messages only likely reach a small number of people who might one day be served a paid ad for the scam.
https://www.facebook.com/reba/posts/pfbid0m8nmcnedhVBwnCSG13qSFiqR8PmAxgsG69BpSVC3wLMEZ3EQbKUNwdV9WkKgshmol
In March, Snopes emailed the office of public affairs with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to ask if it was investigating the existence and massive reach of both CBD and keto gummy scams. We received no response and have yet to see any news of substance regarding anything being done by any organizations to find ways to stop the scams and help consumers. Meanwhile, Meta continues to approve many thousands of scam ads to be shown to its users – with Meta profiting from the ads.
Sources:
"Brit Hume." Fox News, https://www.foxnews.com/person/h/brit-hume.
ICANN Lookup. https://lookup.icann.org/en.
Ortutay, Barbara. "Meta Posts Sharp Profit, Revenue Increase in Q4 Thanks to Cost Cuts and Advertising Rebound." The Associated Press, 1 Feb. 2024, https://apnews.com/article/meta-facebook-instagram-earnings-revenue-profit-abc3e389d97fb97c661ccb6acfcf65c7.
