An Oct. 6 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) includes side-by-side images of CBS journalists Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan.
“CBS Officially Fires Debate Moderators Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan: Disgrace Cannot Be Allowed to Remain on Our Network,” reads the caption on the post.
Other versions of the claim spread widely on Facebook and Threads.
O’Donnell and Brennan moderated the Oct. 1 vice presidential debate between Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the Republican nominee, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic nominee. At one point during the event, Vance clashed with Brennan after she fact-checked the senator’s misleading claims about Haitian immigrants in Ohio. Vance protested what he deemed a violation of the debate’s fact-check rules and continued speaking as Walz jumped in, at which point both nominees’ mics were muted.
The article includes several details that further demonstrate its lack of legitimacy, including a claim that the debate included a live audience and an assertion that Brennan and O’Donnell issued a joint statement after their supposed firings – neither of which actually happened.
The claim is an example of what could be called “stolen satire,” where stories written as satire and presented that way originally are reposted in a way that makes them appear to be legitimate news. As a result, readers of the second-generation post are misled, as was the case here.
