Bubba Wallace 'Noose' Framed as Targeted Hate Act
■ The claim
A noose was left in Black driver Bubba Wallace's Talladega garage stall, and the coverage treated it as a deliberate racist act aimed at him.
■ What actually happened
On June 21, 2020, NASCAR announced a noose had been found in Wallace's stall, called it a heinous act, and federal civil-rights investigators were called in. Coverage widely treated it as a hate act aimed at Wallace. Two days later the FBI and U.S. Attorney said no federal crime had been committed. The rope was a garage-door pull tied in a noose-like loop, and it had been hanging there since October 2019, long before Wallace was assigned that stall.
■ The proof
Joint FBI and U.S. Attorney statement (June 23, 2020): security video showed the pull rope was in place in October 2019, and no federal crime was committed.
■ Original reporting
- Sports Illustrated: Noose found in Wallace's garage, NASCAR investigating (June 22, 2020)https://www.si.com/nascar/2020/06/22/bubba-wallace-nascar-noose-found-garage-investigation
- The Week: NASCAR vows to kick out perpetrators of 'heinous act'https://theweek.com/speedreads/921408/nascar-says-noose-found-bubba-wallaces-garage-seek-kick-perpetrators-heinous-act
■ Corrections, findings & records
- NBC News: FBI finds no crime; rope had been there for monthshttps://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/fbi-finds-no-crime-over-noose-bubba-wallace-nascar-garage-n1231951
- PBS NewsHour: FBI concludes no federal crime committedhttps://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/fbi-concludes-no-federal-crime-committed-in-nascar-noose-incident-after-reviewing-evidence
- CBS Sports: FBI says no federal crime committed against Wallacehttps://www.cbssports.com/nascar/news/fbi-no-federal-crime-was-committed-against-bubba-wallace-while-investigating-noose-in-his-garage/
■ Wayback Machine copies
Stories sometimes get edited after publication. These links open the Internet Archive's earliest snapshot of each original.
- Archive copy: Sports Illustrated: Noose found in Wallace's garage, NASCAR investigating (June 22, 2020)https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.si.com/nascar/2020/06/22/bubba-wallace-nascar-noose-found-garage-investigation
- Archive copy: The Week: NASCAR vows to kick out perpetrators of 'heinous act'https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://theweek.com/speedreads/921408/nascar-says-noose-found-bubba-wallaces-garage-seek-kick-perpetrators-heinous-act
■ Grade
DEBUNKED: Shown false by evidence or official findings, whether or not the outlet corrected it. How we grade →