A rumor that actor Tom Selleck said he would pull the TV show “Blue Bloods” from CBS if the network failed to fire two of its debate moderators circulated online in early October 2024. The rumor referenced the U.S. vice-presidential debate, which CBS News hosted and broadcast live on Oct. 1. “CBS Evening News” anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell and “Face the Nation” moderator and chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan moderated the debate.
Facebook users shared the rumor in the form of a pink-background post from the page America – Love It Or Leave It. That Oct. 2 post read, “Tom Selleck says he’ll pull ‘Blue Bloods’ from CBS if they don’t fire the biased debate moderators: ‘That was embarrassing.'”
However, there was no evidence of Selleck making any such remarks.
Rather, the rumor about Selleck threatening to pull the “Blue Bloods” show from the network originated with America’s Last Line Of Defense — a network of Facebook pages and websites that describes its output as being humorous or satirical in nature. The Facebook page America – Love It Or Leave It displayed a bio mentioning parody and satire, and described itself as, “A subsidiary of the America’s Last Line of Defense network of trollery,” adding, “Nothing on this page is real.
‘I Agree with Tom Selleck and Support Him,’ a User Wrote
Even with the rumor’s satirical origins, some readers still seemed to interpret the story as a factual recounting of real-life events.
For example, one user who shared the post remarked, “I agree with Tom Selleck and support him.”
Another person who shared the post added (archived) with respect to Selleck’s purported comments, “The debates have become a sham when conducted by ABC, CBS, NBC or CNN. The moderators are in no way fair to conservative candidates. Do they really think viewers won’t notice biased questioning, fact-checking one candidate more heavily than the other?”
A third user who clicked to share the post said (archived), “Thanks [sic] you for not being afraid to stand up to these so called reporters. They are supposed to report the news and not distort ot [sic].”
Debate Backlash and Final Season for ‘Blue Bloods’
The fictional story about Selleck spread as some American conservatives expressed disapproval of the way O’Donnell and Brennan provided additional facts as context for viewers watching the debate.
Us Weekly reported that “Blue Bloods” was set to wrap up its 14th and final season with new episodes airing in October 2024.
Snopes has addressed similar satirical claims about the September 2024 ABC News debate between U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. For example, America’s Last Line Of Defense previously published a post saying, “ABC To Fire Its News Staff: Time To Get Back To Being The American Broadcasting Company.” We reported at the time that the rumor about ABC firing news staff stood as yet another completely made-up claim, all for the supposed sake of satire and parody.
For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources that call their output humorous or satirical.
