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Clint Eastwood is still not dead
Clint Eastwood is 89 years old — present tense — which is to say he’s not dead.
That’s not what an undated post on hollywood2019.balitabroadcast.info would have you believe.
The story, which we spotted on Facebook on Sept. 2, was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)
The blog post features CNN’s logo and the words: "CNN Breaking News." Beneath that it says "1 hr ago," which would suggest that the website posted the news of Eastwood’s (hoax) death one hour before we read about it, but the timestamp never changes.
"The actor, filmmaker, musician, and politician dies of heart attack at 89," the post says. "He was filming a commercial."
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An embedded video titled "Rest In Peace" — with an image of Eastwood and CNN’s logo again — plays for a couple seconds before stopping with a message that users must share to verify their ages because there’s graphic content ahead.
But CNN hasn’t reported on Eastwood’s death, nor could we find any other credible coverage reporting that he has died.
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Rather, we found stories like this Sept. 2 dissection of the mechanics behind this particular hoax and this Sept. 3 item from the Independent: "Clint Eastwood death hoax: Why the internet keeps saying celebrities are dead when they are not."
Eastwood actually has a new movie he directed coming out in December: a biopic called "Richard Jewell" about a security guard who became a suspect in a pipe bombing during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
We rate this post Pants on Fire!
Our Sources
Hollywood2019.balitabroadcast.info, post about Clint Eastwood’s death, visited Sept. 30, 2019 and Oct. 1, 2019
Britannica, Clint Eastwood, visited Oct. 1, 2019
Independent, Clint Eastwood death hoax: Why the internet keeps saying celebrities are dead when they are not, Sept. 3, 2019
Lead Stories, Clint Eastwood Death Hoax Tech Eerily Reminiscent of 2017 Rowan Atkinson Death Hoax, Sept. 2, 2019
UPI, Clint Eastwood’s ‘Richard Jewell to open in theaters Dec. 13, Sept. 28, 2019
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Clint Eastwood is still not dead
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