Was Halyna Hutchins Working on a Documentary About Pedophile Rings?

No.

By
14

A viral Facebook post claims that Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer who was fatally shot by a prop gun on the set of the film Rust on October 21, was “attached to a controversial upcoming documentary about alleged pedophile rings in the entertainment industry.” The claim has also been shared on Instagram. 

This is a false claim. 

Hutchins was not working on a “controversial” documentary about “Hollywood pedophile rings.” 

Create a free account
Access additional articles and newsletters for no cost, no credit card information needed. Continue ALREADY HAVE AN ACCOUNT? SIGN IN
14
By
Comments (14)
Join The Dispatch to participate in the comments.
 
  1. Jason Runyan

    There is already a documentary about it called An Open Secret. It was quite good. The director pulled away from endorsing it after it was completed because one of the most incendiary claims was proven false in court. But the rest stands up.

    Collapse
  2. Avatar photo
    JohnF

    Two things:
    1. Does the world really need a site dedicated to hosting fake news?
    2. Why are conspiracy theorists fascinated by pedophile rings?

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      Mike B

      1. Lord, no!
      2. Probably because rape and murder of children is the most heinous evil that they can imagine, so they assign it to the targeted group to stoke and justify their hatred. (See, for instance, blood libel.)

      Collapse
  3. Alex DeLarge

    C'mon guys. Does this mean you are going to start "fact-checking" The Onion and the Babylon Bee.

    When you have time to do something important, can you please fact check this story claiming that an FBI Agent named Ray Epps is on video inciting the Capitol breach on Jan. 6. We need to be able to debunk this, because otherwise people will think it's proof that Trump supporters did not stage an insurgency. https://www.revolver.news/2021/10/meet-ray-epps-the-fed-protected-provocateur-who-appears-to-have-led-the-very-first-1-6-attack-on-the-u-s-capitol/

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      Jeff Walden

      The Onion and the Babylon Bee are making recognizable jokes. Same for Duffelblog and other similar sites. But I don't see any hint of a joke in this claim.

      Collapse
      1. Avatar photo
        Aylene Wright

        The problem is that at times satire actually gets taken seriously. Some conservative parents actually thought that an Onion article on Harry Potter books turning kids into Satanists was real. And that was before social media even existed!

        The original source of the claim being fact checked here, does add disclaimers that make it obvious that it's a joke site. But the Facebook meme version presents it as fact.

        Collapse
        1. Avatar photo
          Jeff Walden

          Satire fails at its purpose if it *doesn't* fool a few people, really. https://www.popehat.com/2016/04/27/satire-is-satire-even-when-people-fall-for-it-mr-jarvis/

          The original source of the claim isn't really trying to be satirical. It's saying something false not to make some point beyond its literal text, but rather basically to mislead. That elsewhere on that site it clearly labels itself as "satire" does not actually make it satire in reality.

          Collapse
        2. Avatar photo
          Aylene Wright

          PS: I wouldn't want TD to waste time fact checking claims that appear on joke sites and remain confined to the sites. No one is seriously claiming, for example, that AOC actually went on the Price is Right and lost because she guessed "Free" for every question about an item's price.

          But this claim had gone viral and was being spread around as fact.

          Collapse
          1. Avatar photo
            JohnF

            That's actually pretty funny.

            Collapse
  4. Avatar photo
    Nick H

    Calling it a "prop gun" implies that it wasn't a real gun being used as a prop. Obviously it was a real gun, capable of firing live ammunition.
    It's despicable how people are using this woman's death to further their insane conspiracy theories.

    Collapse
  5. Avatar photo
    John M.

    How is everything these days tied to a pedophile ring?

    What are these conspiracy theorists on?

    Collapse
  6. Avatar photo
    Jason Gibson

    Its astounding that the Alec Baldwin event is being used for political trolling. How naive of me to think that wouldn't happen

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      Bada Bing

      Who likes Baldwin? But if you are in any way happy about his situation you are truly a despicable person.

      Collapse
    2. Avatar photo
      Narwhal

      You and I seem to have different definitions of astounding.

      Collapse