On April 22, 2024, a Facebook page named Love Style posted, "Elon Musk Fires Entire Cast of 'The View' After Acquiring ABC." The first comment on the post led to an article on viral-stories.online with the headline, "Elon Musk Shakes Up Television with Daring Acquisition and Dismissal."
The article read:
In a surprising turn of events, Elon Musk, the influential CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has made a bold move that has grabbed the attention of the entertainment world. He has acquired ABC and wasted no time in dismissing the entire cast of the long-running talk show, "The View." This unprecedented decision has sent shockwaves throughout the industry, leaving fans and critics in awe.
According to sources close to Musk, he took this daring step due to his dissatisfaction with the show's repetitive arguments and lack of innovation. In a statement, Musk expressed his frustration, saying, "I've been watching 'The View' for years, and it feels like the same tired discussions over and over again. I've had enough of it, and I believe it's time for a fresh approach to daytime talk shows."
The firing of well-known personalities like Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, and Meghan McCain has sparked mixed reactions from fans and critics alike. While some were taken aback by the sudden departure of beloved hosts, others have applauded Musk for daring to disrupt the conventional talk show format.
However, this was not a true story. Musk did not acquire ABC, nor was the cast of "The View" dismissed from the show. The article was likely written by an unknown artificial-intelligence (AI) tool, according to scans of the full text by AI-detection tools ZeroGPT.com, GPTZero.me and CopyLeaks.com.
Posts on other Facebook pages promoted the same article published by other websites. It was possibly a coordinated effort to spread the fictional story.
The Love Style Facebook page featured one of the most engaged-with posts but was not the first profile to share the story. Many websites that published the article hosted malicious content apparently meant to scam users. This malicious content included full-screen takeovers with potentially dangerous pop-up ads.
We searched Facebook for users who have publicly shared the article about Musk and "The View." Based on their comments and captions, some of them seemingly believed the story.
"I really like this guy. 'The View' should have been gone a long time ago. Thank you, Elon!!," one person remarked. "About time. Someone had to raise the intellectual standards of the American viewer," another user wrote. "ONLY WATCHED IT A FEW TIMES AND THEY TICKED ME OFF," someone else wrote.
On top of the public posts viewable by Snopes, there were likely users with more restricted privacy settings that have shared the false story, as well.
There appears to be no shortage of false rumors about Musk, Goldberg, Behar and "The View," as we've reported on numerous rumors about them in the past. Such claims often stem from websites that describe their output as satire, and, sometimes, they circulate with that disclaimer. However, in the above-mentioned case, the websites posting the article did not have satire or parody labels.
We previously debunked a similar rumor that Musk offered $17 and a coupon for a free appetizer at Applebee's to buy the "The View."