Authors
A social media post claiming that ‘America’s richest man John Ford’ has converted to Islam is being circulated on Facebook and Twitter. The post carries two images of a man who it claims to be Ford. However, a fact check by Newschecker has found out that the claim made in the viral social media post is misleading. The man in the images is not Ford, neither is he the richest man in America.
Twitter users have shared two images of a man with the claim that John Ford, ‘the richest man in America’, has converted to Islam. The post says, “America’s richest man John Ford has 190 American channels. Today this has left Christianity. Adopted Islam.” Some users have also addressed Ford as the richest man of the world, adding that he ‘cried while pronouncing the two testimonies.’
The viral post claiming ‘John Ford who has 190 American channels has converted into Islam’, has been shared widely on Facebook as well.
Fact Check/Verification
To verify the veracity of the viral claim, we conducted keyword searches on Google. We looked up the keywords ‘John Ford’, ‘John Ford Richest American’, ‘John Ford American Channels’ and ‘John Ford Islam’. We came across the LinkedIn profile of a ‘John Ford’ who is the president of John Ford Media, LLC. He was also the General Manager of NPACT between July 2015 and August 2019.
His profile describes him as “Consultant to producers, networks and other media/technology clients on launch, management, program development and production for media properties. Clients have included Tegna Inc.,Travel Channel, WEtv, RLTV, National Geographic Channel, Justice Network, NPACT, Justice Network, Quest Network,Mike Rowe Works and multiple production companies.”
However, the image of ‘John Ford’ shared in the viral post had no resemblance to the one on LinkedIn or any other sites.
Newschecker then ran an image search on Google to identify the origin of the image being shared in the viral post and came across an article by Khaleej Times carrying the image. According to the report, dated March 23, 2018, “A video of a man, rumored to be a leader in a US army saying the Shahada (prayer of initiation into the faith) to a group of witnesses in Oman has gone viral. It has generated emotional responses over Instagram and YouTube.”
We also found the YouTube video from which the viral images have likely been taken. The video was posted on March 18, 2018.
Another report by The Express Tribune, dated March 2018, carried the same image and YouTube video, stating “A video has been going viral on social media platforms when a man, rumoured to be a leader in a US army saying Shahada (prayer of initiation into the faith) to a group of witnesses in Oman.”
The reports claimed that the man seen in the viral video is ‘rumoured to be a leader in a US army’. There was no mention of ‘John Ford’ or ‘Richest American’ in the reports.
To check whether Ford ranks among the richest in America, we looked up his name in The Richest People In America by Forbes magazine, but could not find any mention of Ford’s name in the list.
Conclusion:
The viral social media post claiming John Ford, the richest man in America/world, has adopted Islam is misleading.
Result: Misleading
Sources:
Khaleej Times: https://www.khaleejtimes.com/region/oman/video-us-man-gets-emotional-as-he-accepts-islam-in-oman
The Express Tribune: https://tribune.com.pk/story/1667777/watch-american-man-gets-emotional-embraces-islam-oman
Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/
LinkedIn Account Of John Ford
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