White House Spreads Falsehoods Claiming ‘Paw Patrol’ Was Canceled Amid Black Lives Matter Protests

The White House Press Secretary took it on the chin via social media after claiming that PAW Patrol was canceled amid recent Black Lives Matter protests. White House correspondent Philip Wegmann shared a quote from Kayleigh McEnany on the topic. She noted that the Nickelodeon cartoon, which features a fictional talking police dog named Chase, had been removed from the network. This is not accurate and was quickly refuted by the PAW Patrol Twitter account of all places.

It is true that shows like Cops and Live PD have been cancelled, but PAW Patrol never was. Snopes points out that a rumor about PAW Patrol being cancelled first began circulating on social media in June. There were sarcastic and joking comments online about Chase being a police dog amidst sweeping civil unrest over real-life police brutality. Then, the NY Times ran an article titled “The Protests Come for PAW Patrol,” which claimed that comments on a BLM support post shared by the official PAW Patrol Twitter account were enough to prove that “it’s a joke, but it’s also not.” The article adds, “As the protests against racist police violence enter their third week, the charges are mounting against fictional cops, too. Even big-hearted cartoon police dogs — or maybe especially big-hearted cartoon police dogs — are on notice.”

Snopes went on to note that the claims about attacks on PAW Patrol were later propagated by conservatives like Eric Trump — U.S. President Donald Trump’s son — and NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch. The outlet states that the overwhelming majority of the outcry against PAW Patrol was merely in jest. It also noted that some of the anger toward perceived attacks on the show may have been partially stoked by an article from the satirical news site The Onion, about a PAW Patrol writer defending an episode wherein a German shepherd shot a black Lab 18 times in the back. This is not true, and not a real episode.

Additionally, Snopes noted that there had been no activity on the PAW Patrol Twitter page since June 2 when it tweeted, “In solidarity of #amplifymelanatedvoices we will be muting our content until June 7th to give access for Black voices to be heard so we can continue to listen and further our learning. #amplifyblackvoices.” The show has since broken its silence, tweeting on Friday afternoon, “No need to worry. PAW Patrol is not canceled.”