Fact Check

Did Comedy Central Fire Michelle Wolf and Apologize to Sarah Sanders?

The 'Daily Show' correspondent's appearance at an annual Washington press event left much of the nation abuzz.

Published April 29, 2018

Claim:
Comedy Central fired Michelle Wolf and issued an apology after the comedian's appearance at the 2018 White House Correspondents Dinner.

On 28 April 2018, Daily Show correspondent Michelle Wolf delivered a routine at the annual White House Correspondents Dinner that was variously described as everything from as a "savage takedown of everyone from President Donald Trump to White House press secretary Sarah Sanders to the media" to a "disgrace":

Amidst a national press debate over the tone and appropriateness of Wolf's material the following day, the Daily World Update web site published an article reporting that the Comedy Central cable channel had fired the comedian and issued an apology to White House press secretary Sarah Sanders:

The entertainment industry is reeling this morning after one of their rising stars, Michelle Wolf, has been fired from her show on Comedy Central. She was also dismissed as a contributing writer on The Daily Show. The move comes after Wolf’s brutal takedown of Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the White House Correspondent’s dinner.

None of this was true. Wolf has a new variety-sketch series called The Break coming to Netflix (not Comedy Central), and that series is still scheduled to begin streaming weekly on 27 May 2018. Nor did Comedy Central issue an apology to Sarah Huckabee Sanders over Wolf's comments at the correspondents dinner.

This report about Wolf's putative firing originated with Daily World Update, a site that is part of a fake news network which engages in political trolling under the guise of offering "satire." The site's disclaimer notes that "Everything on this website is fiction."

Daily World Update ran another nearly identical (and similarly false) article reporting that Hulu had cancelled plans to stream Wolf's stand-up special.

Sources

Eagleton, Flagg.   "Michelle Wolf Fired — Comedy Central Apologizes to Sarah Sanders."     Daily World Update.   29 April 2018.

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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