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Rather than the traditional hot dogs and hamburgers, some people spent the Labor Day weekend grilling up speculation that President Donald Trump was gravely ill or even dead.

The false claims pointed to a suspended schedule (it wasn’t), cryptic hints from Vice President JD Vance (he didn’t) and old images of Trump that supposedly showed a president in decline.

The story fizzled once Trump appeared live at the White House on Sept. 2 and even joked about the chatter when Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked him about it.

“I didn’t see that. I have heard. It’s sort of crazy, but last week I did numerous news conferences. All successful, they went very well. Like this is going very well,” Trump said. “And then I didn’t do any for two days and they said ‘There must be something wrong with him.’”

To understand how the hoax started and why it caught fire so quickly, I sent a few questions to PolitiFact reporters Maria Ramirez Uribe and Loreben Tuquero, who wrote about the claim earlier this week.

Ren LaForme: Where did these rumors originate, and what fueled their rapid spread?

Maria Ramirez Uribe and Loreben Tuquero: The rumors seem to have stemmed from an Aug. 28 USA Today interview with Vice President JD Vance. The interviewer asked Vance whether he was ready to take over the presidency if necessary, noting that Trump is the oldest president to have been sworn in. Vance said he was, but added several times that Trump is in good health.

Social media users took the first part of Vance’s answer to presume the president was either ill or dead.

At the same time, Trump’s agenda had slowed down. Trump didn’t have any public events after his Aug. 26 cabinet meeting. As a president who is often on camera, people took the lack of facetime as evidence that something was wrong.

Add to that Trump’s real, yet non-life-threatening, health condition. Trump has been photographed with swollen ankles and bruised hands. In July, his doctor diagnosed Trump with chronic venous insufficiency, a common condition that can cause leg swelling.

Data from Rolli IQ, a social media monitoring tool, showed that the phrase “Trump is dead” popped up more than 5,600 times from Aug. 28 to Sept. 2 across X, Reddit, YouTube and Bluesky. Posts containing that phrase gained the most engagement on X.

Liberal social media influencers made videos that amassed millions of views on TikTok questioning Trump’s health and demanding answers from the White House.

Some of them acknowledged Trump was alive, showing reporters’ photos of him leaving the White House to go golfing over the weekend. Others scrutinized the photos of Trump, saying he looked sick and weak.

A mischaracterized quote from Vance. A low-key holiday weekend. And a preexisting medical condition. These three factors came together to create a perfect storm for viral misinformation.

LaForme: From Paul McCartney to Joe Biden, death hoaxes about public figures have been around for decades. Why does this type of misinformation keep resurfacing?

Ramirez Uribe and Tuquero: One communications professor we spoke to told us that people often share these conspiracy theories in response to an unfulfilled psychological need. At its most basic, this misinformation is a form of escape for people who don’t like a leader.

“For people who may not like the current administration, the overall theory is probably a release valve,” Cliff Lampe, a University of Michigan School of Information professor, told us.

Lampe said in many cases, rumors of a leaders’ death are fueled when leaders constrain access to a free press. He added that oftentimes those leaders have enemies who want to “destabilize their legitimacy.”

One difference in the case of rumors about Trump was that the theory became more mainstream, noted Jeffrey Blevins, a University of Cincinnati professor who teaches media law and ethics.

These claims amassed millions of social media views and shares over what might have otherwise been a quieter long weekend.

LaForme: When people come across shocking claims like this online, what’s the smartest way to engage (or not engage)?

Ramirez Uribe and Tuquero: As is often the case, if we come across misinformation that elicits some sort of emotional response: shock, fear, sadness or excitement, we should take a beat before sharing it.

Consult credible sources to verify the accuracy of the information before spreading it further.

For example, even though Trump had no public meetings, the White House continued to publicly release his schedule and chronicle meetings and actions. Trump continued posting on Truth Social. And independent journalists from the White House press pool photographed Trump coming and going from the White House and his golf course.

By Ren LaForme

Peacock bets on a ghost newspaper in Ohio with ‘The Paper,’ its Office spinoff

Domhnall Gleeson as Ned and Sabrina Impacciatore as Esmeralda in “The Paper.” (Troy Harvey/Peacock)

The lineage of television shows set in newsrooms continues today with the premiere of “The Paper,” Peacock’s new spinoff of “The Office.” The mockumentary comedy takes viewers inside a fictional, desiccated Ohio newspaper and its hapless staff.

The show follows The Toledo Truth Teller on the first day of editor-in-chief Ned Sampson, played by the magnetic Domhnall Gleeson. Sampson faces an undermining deputy who thinks she deserved the top job, an all-volunteer staff befitting a “ghost newspaper,” and the familiar presence of Oscar Nuñez, reprising his Office role as Oscar Martínez, now the Truth Teller’s head accountant.

(For more on the show’s setup, see Poynter’s Amaris Castillo’s preview: “What we know about ‘The Paper,’ the ‘Office’ spinoff about an Ohio ghost newspaper.”)

TV has a surprisingly decent track record when it comes to journalists on screen: Think more “Murphy Brown,” “Lou Grant” and “The Newsroom” than the short-lived 2018 “Murphy Brown” revival. Where “The Paper” will land is still up for debate.

“Well, there’s good news and bad news,” writes New York Times chief TV critic James Poniewozik. The good: The show “starts fast, funny and competent, with an easy command of its mockumentary template. But the template is also a problem; the show feels too much like a Mad Libs version of the characters and dynamics from ‘The Office’ and similar shows, without a firm identity of its own.”

Rolling Stone’s Alan Sepinwall points to the opening credits, which feature old clips of people using newspapers for everything but reading.

“Similarly,” he writes, “‘The Paper’ doesn’t really work as a direct Office replacement, since even at its strongest, it never remotely approaches the comedic levels of its parent show. But it may at least function as a methadone-like substitute for fans who love the original but feel like they need to stop rewatching ‘Casino Night’ and ‘The Lover’ over and over again.

The Hollywood Reporter’s Daniel Fienberg is more optimistic, praising the ensemble cast and the show’s “10-episode initial run that is frequently funny, occasionally pointed and, more than anything, consistent.”

Peacock seems confident, too. On Wednesday, Gleeson and Sabrina Impacciatore (who plays the conniving online editor) announced on NBC’s “Today” show that “The Paper” had already been renewed for a second season, a day before the first even premiered.

The news about “The Paper” may be mixed, but at least one thing is certain: The presses will keep rolling.

By Ren LaForme

The best (and worst) journalism on screen

Hollywood can’t stop telling stories about reporters, editors and newsrooms. Here are three Poynter guides, each with a slightly different lens on the best (and worst) journalism on film and TV.

• The 25 greatest journalism movies — Senior media writer Tom Jones crowns “All the President’s Men” as the gold standard, but also champions overlooked gems like “Shattered Glass,” “Absence of Malice” and the cult newsroom favorite “The Paper” (1994), which will have to make way for the newcomer with the same name.
• Your favorite journalism movies — Former audience engagement producer Annie Aguiar tallied reader votes across platforms. “Spotlight” edged past “All the President’s Men” for the top spot. And, yes, “Anchorman” made the cut.
• 11 journalism movies and shows to stream — Staff writer Amaris Castillo pulled together a binge list that manages to include award-winners like “Succession” and “The Morning Show” and a few picks that’ll make you say, “Wait, that was about journalism?” I’m looking at you, “Bridgerton.”

By Ren LaForme

Here’s a surprising strategic asset for The New York Times: a young average demographic

A man polishes the sign for The New York Times at the company’s headquarters, July 18, 2013 in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

The Pew Research Center dropped one of its studies of the habits of American news readers late last week — this one measuring the average age of users of 30 outlets.

Some results were predictable. Hispanic TV networks Univision and Telemundo had the youngest users, with an average of 39 and 42, respectively, which makes sense since the Hispanic population is younger than the average for the U.S.

The other TV networks, including left-leaning MSNBC, skew older. CBS is the slowest horse in a slow field with an average age of 58.

But you might not guess that fourth among the outlets in tilting to younger users (with an average age of 42) was The New York Times.

For close followers of the somewhat arcane advertising and financial story the Times tells about itself, this won’t be news. It is a positive that executives have been mentioning now and then in the several decades I have been covering the industry. CEO Meredith Kopit Levien has described the strength with younger readers as “a constant.”

The full list in the accompanying chart follows the same pattern. The Wall Street Journal, stereotypically even more directed to an establishment audience than the Times, was in the top half, as were The Washington Post and The New York Post. The Daily Wire and “The Joe Rogan Experience” were, too.

(Courtesy: Pew Research Center)

Nearly 20% of news consumers ages 18 to 29 do not use any of the outlets, relying on social media instead.

I spoke with Elisa Shearer, senior researcher for Pew and author of the report, about the methodology of the survey. More than 9,000 participants were interviewed. They were asked, outlet by outlet, if they were “regular news consumers” (rather than whether they were familiar with the provider).

Pew sometimes calls itself a “fact tank,” laying out information rather than recommending how to use it. Shearer said she wasn’t able to speak to what those who want a younger audience should do. She did note that there was a wide range of audience sizes in the group studied, and some of the outlets may be aiming for users of a certain political persuasion, for instance, rather than caring so much about age.

Poynter’s Angela Fu previously dissected a portion of the study released earlier this summer, which found that while Democrats tend to consult a variety of sources, Republicans have an overwhelming favorite: Fox News.

By Rick Edmonds

Media tidbits and links for your review

• NPR’s David Folkenflik reports on a brewing battle in “In a brawl over right-wing TV, Newsmax sues Fox News.”
• Speaking of Fox News … A group of women who said they were victimized by Jeffrey Epstein, including some who have never been public before, spoke at a news conference on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. CNN and MSNBC carried it live, Brian Stelter reports, while Fox News mostly ignored it.
• Breaker Media’s Lachlan Cartwright with, “For Your Sins: A questionable campaign has left some Society of Professional Journalists members baffled and frustrated at the organization.”
• For Columbia Journalism Review, Polish journalist Paulina Milewska and Russian journalist Ksenia Mironova write, “How to Survive the (Media) Apocalypse: Lessons from journalists who have lived through all this.”
• The New York Times’ Ben Mullin shares a memo to staff from Matt Murray, the top editor of The Washington Post, who highlights 40 exclusives in August. “The power of our journalism is undiminished,” Murray wrote.
• TheWrap’s Corbin Bolies reports that “C-SPAN Makes Its Way to YouTube TV, Hulu After Extensive Lobbying.”
• “Super Bowl 2026 Commercials Have Sold Out, With NBC Seeking at Least $7 Million per Ad,” Variety’s Brian Steinberg reports.
• The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch and Andrew Marchand write about “Tom Brady Year 2, YouTube Year 1 and the biggest NFL media storylines for the 2025 season.” 
• Finally, a bit of good news for an industry that is full of bad. Seven Days, an award-winning weekly publication in Vermont, is celebrating 30 years of publishing. In the three decades since its launch, the staff writes, “the arts-and-news weekly has bucked national industry trends and steadily grown in size and influence to become Vermont’s largest-circulation print newspaper and a go-to source of award-winning, rigorously reported local journalism. The paper often runs 100-plus pages a week.”

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Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.

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