QUESTION:
Is David Hogg a crisis actor planted by TV news stations?
ANSWER:
There is no evidence that supports this theory. Marco Rubio, Students and a teacher all rush to defend David Hogg as a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Student.
SOURCES:
Video of Marjory Stoneman Douglass Yearbook
Tweets from students
CBS This Morning with Culinary Arts Teacher Ashley Kurth
US Florida Senator Marco Rubio Tweet
Florida State Representative Shawn Harrison Tweet
David Hogg YouTube Vlog
David Hogg on CBS Los Angeles in August 2017
PROCESS:
David Hogg is under the spotlight.
That's what you would expect after being the most interviewed teen following the Parkland, Florida shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Highschool on February 14, 2017.
After seeing his face appear, reappear and re-reappear, Hogg is having his identity called into question.
Conspirators online claim Hogg is really a 'crisis' actor, who appears in interviews across the country after school shootings. Others say Hogg is too eloquent and articulate to be 17.
Some claim he's an actor planted by CNN. Still more claim he is actually from California, NOT Florida.
All over social media people are sharing a screenshot of a yearbook. A tweet from Laguna Beach Antifa with a yearbook photo claiming Hogg actually went to school in California and "always wanted to work for CNN and be an actor."
There's also an interview of Hogg on a Los Angeles CBS Station back in August. Conspiracy Theorists say it's proof he's not from Florida.
To Verify our researchers tracked down the source of that yearbook photo and found this video posted by a Douglas student.
That video shows the book's cover, and you'll see it's actually be from Marjory Douglas High School in Florida.
As for that video from California?
Our team found Hogg's YouTube "vlog" which shows he was on vacation in Cali at the time.
While the school's policy keeps it from confirming a student's enrollment - consider this, fellow Douglas students ran to Hogg's defense online, as did US Florida Senator Marco Rubio.
Hogg also appeared with his Culinary Arts teacher Ashley Kurth on CBS This Morning. He says Kurth saved his and 60 other student's lives by helping protect and barricading them in the classroom closet during the Florida shooting.
Our Verify team could not find anything online that helped substantiate Hogg's ulterior identity as a professional victim actor.
Most of those claims were published by self-described 'conservative news organizations.' GOP news aggregator True Pundit wrote "BUSTED" in a viral tweet claiming Hogg was con. The tweet reaped 8,300 retweets and a like from Donald Trump Jr.