Fact-checking the Saturday night shooting attempt in DC

Fact-checking what happened at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Almost as soon as gunshots were reported from the White House Correspondents’ dinner on Saturday night, social media was flooded with conspiracy theories and finger-pointing over the attack. In a now-common phenomenon after such incidents, prominent influencers fill the information vacuum with speculation in a bid for attention and followers. The miasma of falsehoods, rumors and conjecture has clouded multiple breaking news moments in recent years, including two previous assassination attempts against President Trump and the capture of Nicolás Maduro, then Venezuela’s president. This time, users from across the political spectrum were participating in the chaos on platforms like X, Facebook and TikTok. Some users claimed that the attack was “staged,” suggesting without evidence that it was part of an apparent plot by Mr. Trump or others to distract from bad polling numbers or the war with Iran. The term “staged” surged to more than 300,000 posts on X by midday Sunday, according to data by TweetBinder, a social media analytics company owned by Audiense. (At least some of those posts refuted the notion that the attack was planned.) “AI Dave” is part of a weekly AI series supported by funding from Omidyar Network.