The Associated Press is being ridiculed after it pulled down a “fact check” story on an X-rated hoax about Trump running-mate JD Vance involving a couch and a rubber glove, claiming it “didn’t go through [their] standard editing process” before publication.
The article, which was tagged with an authoritative “AP Fact Check” header, was titled “No, JD Vance did not have sex with a couch,” alluding to a fake claim that the Ohio senator described making love to a sofa in graphic detail in his 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.”
The salacious hoax spread like wildfire on social media, reportedly sparked by an X user who tweeted out a description of the alleged lewd act complete with a bogus citation.
Of course, no such passage exists in Vance’s bestseller, “Hillbilly Elegy,” but that didn’t stop the rumor from spreading — with many apparently believing it was true, including comedian and known twit Kathy Griffin.
After the post went viral, AP’s fact-checkers sprang into action, vowing to leave no stone unturned in pursuit of getting to the truth.
The wire service’s rigorous assessment included scanning through a “searchable PDF” of the book for the word “couch” or “couches” — which came up 10 times in total, though never in the context of a sex act.
“Other users specifically cited pages 179 to 181 as the portion of the book in which this story allegedly appears,” AP’s conclusion reads in part.
“But at no point in his memoir does Vance write about performing sex acts on a couch.”
The article was published around 3 p.m. Wednesday and had vanished by Thursday morning, the link only returned a “page unavailable” error
“The story, which did not go out on the wire to our customers, didn’t go through our standard editing process. We are looking into how that happened,” an AP spokesperson told The Post.
Author and journalist Noah Rothman slammed the Associated Press as “sleazy” for deleting the article, and for giving the fake claim — which emanated from an anonymous X user with less than 1,800 followers — any oxygen whatsoever.
“Last night, the AP published a ‘fact check’ of utterly unknown nobodies who alleged that JD Vance fornicated a couch, not because anyone believed that but because it introduces that nonsense into the bloodstream. Today, it’s gone. So sleazy.”
CNN senior reporter Andy Kaczynski apparently bewildered by the decision to delete the article, posted a link to the deleted AP story, saying, “AP fact-checked what was a joke from left-wing Twitter – but the link for this is dead now and I can no longer find the story on the AP website. What is going on?”
One X user sarcastically surmised in the comments, “they probably retracted it under pressure from Big Couch.”
“Hillbilly Elegy” tells the story of Vance’s rural upbringing in Middletown, Ohio, and how his Kentucky family’s values shaped his own.
It was adapted into a 2020 movie of the same name, directed by Ron Howard and starring Amy Adams and Glenn Close.