Michigan governor violated social distancing order while signing stay-at-home order.
The claim has appeared in multiple posts, including one (archived here) published on Facebook by James Lo Tempio on April 7, 2020. It opened:, This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:, , The post is being shared to suggest the Michigan governor was being hypocritical and practicing the old adage, "Do as I say, not as I do.", "However, the photo was more than a year old, as FactCheck.org first reported. It did not show Whitmer signing the actual emergency order on April 2, 2020, which called for a fine up to $1,000 for people who violate the states social distancing requirements due to the coronavirus outbreak.", Texas Sen. Ted Cruz had shared the falsehood on Twitter, prompting Whitmer to issue her own response:, "Hello Senator! This photo is from January of 2019, and is being misused to spread fear and anger. I know you would never intentionally mislead the public during a pandemic, so Im hopeful youll correct this mistake as soon as possible. Stay safe, & happy Easter from Michigan 👋", , Cruz later deleted the tweet and offered this explanation:, "I RTed a former LA Times reporter who had tweeted pics that mistakenly ran on the ABC local news broadcast. When I found out the story was erroneous, I deleted the tweet. Gosh, Brian, why does your tweet omit the MSM error that started it? Or does CNN only exist to attack GOP? https://t.co/ehvPHPMrGh", , The station at the center of this imbroglio, WXYZ, published an explanation on its website, but it did not explicitly offer an apology:, We recognize the decision to use the video has caused confusion, and WXYZ has internally addressed what allowed it to happen in the first place., (WXYZ) - A viral photo being shared across social media of Gov. Whitmer, purportedly showing her not following her recent executive order on social distancing, features a bill signing that is more than a year old and is in no way related to the COVID-19 outbreak., , , Lead Stories is working with the CoronaVirusFacts/DatosCoronaVirus Alliance, a coalition of more than 100 fact-checkers who are fighting misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn more about the alliance here., "Ryan Cooper, a staff writer and fact-checker for Lead Stories, is the former Director of Programming at CNN International, where he helped shape the networks daily newscasts broadcast to more than 280 million households around the world. He was based at the networks Los Angeles Bureau. There, he managed the team responsible for a three-hour nightly program,\xa0Newsroom LA.", "Formerly, he worked at the headquarters in Atlanta, and he spent four years at the London bureau. An award-winning producer, Cooper oversaw the networks Emmy Award-winning coverage of the uprising in Egypt in 2011. He also served as a supervising producer during much of the networks live reporting on the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in 2006, for which CNN received an Edward R. Murrow Award.", Note: if reading this fact check makes you want to contact us to complain about bias, please check out our Red feed first., Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, deceptive or\n      inaccurate stories (or media) making the rounds on the internet.\n      \n      Spotted something? Let us know!., Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, deceptive or\n        inaccurate stories (or media) making the rounds on the internet.\n        \n        Spotted something? Let us know!.
Fact Check: Michigan Governor Did NOT Violate State's Social Distancing Order; TV Station Used File Footage | Lead Stories