An image shared on Facebook claims actor Jim Carrey made a statement advocating for closing down the “national media for 30 days.”

Verdict: False

The statement has been misattributed to Carrey.

Fact Check:

The image in the Facebook post shows Carrey in front of a black background along with an alleged quote from him that reads, “I say we close down the national media for 30 days and watch 80% of the world’s problem go away.”

There is, however, no record of Carrey saying such a thing. Check Your Fact searched through the actor’s verified Twitter account, but found no instance of the quote. Had Carrey suggested shutting the media down for 30 days, media outlets likely would have reported on it, yet none have.

Marleah Leslie, Carrey’s publicist, confirmed in an email that the quote was misattributed, saying the statement was “not made by Jim Carrey.” (RELATED: Did New Zealand’s Government Tell A Public Broadcaster To Censor Anti-Government Comments On Its Social Media Platforms?)

The quote has been circulating on social media since at least March 2020 without attribution to Carrey. In March 2020 political commentator Michael Nöthen sent a tweet reading, “I say we close down the national media for 30 days and watch 80% of the worlds problems go away. RETWEET if you agree!” Nöthem did not attribute the statement to Carrey or anyone else. A Facebook user posted the same quote in March 2020, which was shared over 900 times, and likewise did not attribute it to Carrey.

Carrey has previously publicly criticised the media. In January, he tweeted a political cartoon of a doctor pointing at a Fox News logo inside an x-ray of a skull and saying, “I’m sorry… it’s brain cancer.”

“One of the most corrosive threats to society moving forward is social media and right wing disinformation,” Carrey tweeted in January. “There should be giant fines for false info and if they call their content ‘hyperbole’ in court, they should not be allowed to call it ‘news’ on tv.”