An independent film released in the UK this week has taken the US box office by storm, but has run into controversy.
Sound of Freedom is the story of anti-child trafficking campaigner Tim Ballard, who founded charity Operation Underground Railroad (OUR).
But the credibility of the claims made by Ballard and the organisation he once led have been called into question, and troubling links have been unearthed with conspiracy theories perpetuated by the US far-right.
Vice News journalists Anna Merlan and Tim Marchman have been digging into the facts behind Ballard and OUR for a number of years, and explained to Ali and Paul what is going on.
Elsewhere on the podcast, we explain why Ferret Fact Service fact-checked a video about Patrick Harvie, and Ali’s credibility is tested in an impromptu quiz.
Show notes:
- Anna and Tim’s work on OUR and Tim Ballard can be found here.
- Our fact check on the Patrick Harvie video is here.
Ferret Fact Service (FFS) is a non-partisan fact checker, and signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network fact-checkers’ code of principles.
All the sources used in our checks are publicly available and the FFS fact-checking methodology can be viewed here.
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