Fact check: Claim that Anheuser-Busch is closing half its breweries is satire

Hannah Hudnall, USA TODAY
·2 min read
8

The claim: Anheuser-Busch is closing half its breweries

An April 29 article (direct link, archive link) describes seemingly dire news for Anheuser-Busch, the company that owns Bud Light.

"Busch To Shut Down Half Of US Breweries Following Marketing Blunder," reads the article's headline.

Facebook users have shared other articles with the claim as well.

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Our rating: False

The story originated on a satirical website. A spokesperson for Anheuser-Busch said it's not shutting down half its breweries.

Claim first appeared on satirical website

Anheuser-Busch is facing conservative backlash after working with transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney for one of its March Madness giveaways. Following the partnership, Bud Light in-store sales dropped 17%, according to Yahoo Finance.

The company hasn't shut down half its breweries, however.

An Anheuser-Busch spokesperson told USA TODAY in an email that the claim is false.

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An earlier version of the article was published by the Patriot Party Press, which refers to itself as "a subsidiary of the 'America’s Last Line of Defense' network of parody, satire, and tomfoolery" on its "About Us" page.

The claim is an example of "stolen satire," in which made-up claims published and labeled as satire are reposted in a way that makes them appear to be legitimate news. As a result, readers of the second-generation post are misled, as was the case here.

The article describes "Joe Barron" as vice president of Bud Light, but no one with that name is listed on Anheuser-Busch's leadership page. The bottom of the article even includes the following disclaimer: "None of these numbers could be verified at the time of this article, but we’ll continue reporting them as fact until someone proves otherwise, as usual."

The company still lists 12 breweries on its website, including one in St. Louis that the article claims is shutting down.

USA TODAY reached out to the websites that shared the claim for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

The claim has also been debunked by PolitiFact and the Associated Press.

Our fact-check sources:

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: No, Anheuser-Busch isn't shutting down half its breweries