claim: Justin Bieber and Katy Perry made public statements warning that the music industry is run by pedophiles.
origin: In early August 2017, articles appeared on unreliable web sites reporting that two of the most popular entertainers in pop music, Justin Bieber and Katy Perry, had made public statements asserting that the music industry is run by pedophiles. (Note: We recognize that pedophilia, which is defined as a sexual attraction to children, is not the same as child sexual abuse, although the web sites under discussion do not observe that distinction.) A YourNewsWireÂ storyÂ written by Dmitry Baxter (one of the promulgators of the thoroughly discredited â€œPizzagateâ€ conspiracy theory claiming in 2016 that Hillary Clinton and other â€œWashington elitesâ€ ran a pedophile ring out of a pizza restaurant in the nationâ€™s capitol) intimated that the reason Bieber canceledÂ the last leg of his 2017 world tour in July was his realization that pedophilia is rampant in the entertainment business:Â < Justin Bieber told hundreds of people at a Bible study class in Los Angeles that he has â€œwoken upâ€ to the â€œevils of the music industryâ€ and he needs to take a break from the industry because it is â€œcontrolled by the absolute worst kind of people â€”Â pedophiles.â€ Bieber has become a regular at the Bible study class held at the Montage in Beverly Hills and on Saturday 22nd July he shared what he described as a â€œhorrific storyâ€ with the congregation and explained why he felt he had to quit his world tour. Describing a party on tour â€”Â attended by the upper echelon of the music business, including executive VPs of development, producers, power agents and international financiers â€”Â Bieber said he was encouraged to sexually abuse a young child who had been bought to the party for the sexual gratification of the industry elite. > One day later, a similar article about Katy Perry was posted on the web site Neon Nettle (another hardcore purveyor of â€œPizzagateâ€ rumors, not to mention articles falsely attributing statements about show business pedophilia to actor Brad Pitt and implying connectionsÂ between the deaths of alt-rockers Chris Cornell and Chester Bennington and music industry child abusers): < In a shocking exposÃ© from one of the biggest pop stars in the world, Katy Perry has dealt a devastating blow to the entertainment world elite by revealing that the entire industry is â€œcontrolledâ€ by â€œsick pedophilesâ€. The â€œI Kissed a Girlâ€ singer had left many concerned about her mental state following a series of public breakdowns earlier this year. She made headlines when she disclosed her suicidal tendencies and exhibited signs of a split personality disorder, saying â€œI donâ€™t want to be Katy Perry anymoreâ€. > The article goes on to paint a picture virtually identical to that in the YourNewsWire article of industry pedophiles making up an â€œexclusive clubâ€:Â < Clearly troubled by the details, she told a group of close friends: â€œI canâ€™t live this life any longer. Theyâ€™re all pedophiles. What they do to these children is sick.â€ She continues to elaborate, visibly traumatized by the things sheâ€™s witnessed: â€œAnd theyâ€™re every where you go. Itâ€™s like theyâ€™re not even trying to hide it. They flaunt it like itâ€™s a badge of honorâ€ â€œThe producers, the executives, the big namesâ€¦ Theyâ€™re all in on itâ€ â€œItâ€™s like an exclusive club that you can only join if you do these evil things to innocent childrenâ€¦ And itâ€™s not just dirty old men, itâ€™s all of them. Even the women.â€ â€œThey say to me, â€˜Katy, you need to take the next step in your careerâ€™, but thereâ€™s no way I would do those things to kids.â€ > Despite the fact that both stories include elements of truth to shore up their credibility â€” Justin Bieber did cancel part of his 2017 tour, for example, and Katy Perry did say in a live-streamed therapy session that she doesnâ€™t want to be â€œKaty Perryâ€ anymore (i.e., in the sense of having to live up to fansâ€™ expectations) â€” in neither case are the statements attributed to them about pedophilia sufficiently sourced or corroborated to earn readersâ€™ credence. No such statements by Bieber and Perry have been quoted (or even mentioned) by any mainstream news outlets. On the contrary, these statements are lurid fabrications designed either to garner social media likes and shares (and advertising dollars), or spread disinformation intended to harm the reputations of so-called â€œHollywood elitesâ€ (a favorite political target of both YourNewsWire and Neon Nettle), or both. Unfortunately, by disseminating these false stories, the web sites dilute and lend confusion to the impact of actual claims of industry pedophilia made by the likes of former child actors Corey Feldman and Elijah Wood, who have separately gone on record saying the extent to which the sexual abuse of minors occurs in Hollywood is underreported. Worse, child abuse is one of those emotion-laden topics that can lead to violence, so thereâ€™s no room for false reporting. One would hope that lessons were learned from the Pizzagate debacle, which resulted in a credulous fake news reader firing an AR-15Â rifle inside Washington DCâ€™s Comet Ping Pong, a family restaurant; the shooter said he expected to rescue â€œchild sex slavesâ€ from a pedophile ring that does not exist, which was purportedly run out of the restaurantâ€™s basement, which also does not exist. We reached out to representatives of Justin Bieber and Kate Perry for comment, but did not hear back before publication time.