You’ve seen ads like these. They are everywhere. 
 

 
And it’s not just Marilyn Denis. It’s Tracy Moore. It’s Dina Pugliese. It’s Michele Romanow.
 
I spoke with Michele about it just last week and she said it comes with the territory: unscrupulous people making up ads just to get unwitting readers to click through and find out why their favourite personalities are in trouble or have quit or are going to start up a cosmetics line.
 
It’s nothing but lies. Out and out LIES. And I am furious on behalf of these women. When I first saw the Marilyn story, I knew that it was bogus. After all, she was (at the time) gearing up for another season of her hit CTV show and there was absolutely no chance she was leaving.
 
Then another ad started showing up and it was photoshopped to look as if she had a black eye. And then more ads, like the ones you see above. All of them different but all with the same message: she’s leaving TV and here’s why. “Fans are shocked!” the garbage click bait says. I know if it was about me, I’d be jumping out of my skin. But there is very little, if anything, these women or the companies that employ them can do.
 
When I tweeted about Marilyn NOT leaving, and wondering why @BellMediaPR wasn’t doing anything about it, they kindly responded to my tweet:
 

 
Last week I got an email from Marilyn thanking me for being such a staunch defender on her behalf. (No problem – I’d want people on my side if I had a profile big enough to be hit with these kinds of lies.) I tweeted about it a month or so ago but thought the lies had died down.
 
Then, just this past week, I was talking with a woman in Regina and she remarked that Marilyn sure had some changes coming (like I’d undertaken in my life and career). I asked her to clarify and, sure enough, she believed one of those stories, as told after clicking the shocking so-called headline. So the misinformation is still out there.
 
On the weekend, I spotted a tweet directed to Kevin Frankish that said, “Oh no, Kevin – first you leave (Breakfast Television) and now Dina?” followed by many crying emojis. So I wrote that it’s a hoax and a lie and none of the prominent women being targetted by these bogus posts is leaving. I added that, whatever you do, don’t click through to find out why they’re alleged to be departing their posts. 
 
Please share this blog with everyone you know – or at least my FB post – as we try to get a little bit of a truth bomb out there. I know people love to throw around the term “Fake News,” but that has come to mean (at least to me) truth that the reader finds distasteful. And I always hear it in Trump’s voice. Ugh. In this case, it’s outright fraud and lies. That’s not even fake news. It’s a crime, is what it is.
 
And why can’t they stop it, all of these high profile media company’s lawyers? Because you can’t hit a moving target, that’s why. That’s what Michele Romanow (CBC’s Dragons’ Den) told me: the IP addresses – usually based in China – are constantly changing.
 
It’s nearly impossible to nail these bastards. As Michele put it with a shrug, “I just hate people wasting their money on these products.” She’s right. In her case, the ads suggest that Michele left DD because she found this amazing product through her show and wanted to endorse/make money from it. Same song for Marilyn, Tracy, Dina and more. It’s a sham and a scam and I need you to help me share the truth.
 
I know I have hated being lied about in the past – albeit not on as nearly wide a platform – and that’s why I’m so indignant on behalf of these women. 
 
(By the way, if you ever hear any rumours about me or have any questions, you need only write and ask. It gives me a chance to answer them honestly. Like the one last week assuming I’d quit radio to write a book. Stuff like that. Let me give you a head start, though: I am definitely having an affair with George Clooney, but Rob’s okay with it as long as we’re discreet and it doesn’t interfere with his hockey. There.) Talk to you here tomorrow.