The viral Santa story everyone has been sharing might not be true

The Christmas story that moved many who read it to tears earlier this week may not be true.

The Knoxville News Sentinel, which originally carried the story, said on Wednesday that it could not corroborate columnist Sam Venable’s story about a man from Tennessee who plays Santa Claus.

The tear-jerking story was quickly picked up by international media. In interviews that followed, Eric Schmitt-Matzen stuck to his account of being called to a nearby hospital to fulfill a dying five-year-old boy’s last wish.

No record of the events described by Schmitt-Matzen’ was found at hospitals near his home and workplace in Jacksboro, in suburban Knoxville.

However, he continually refused to provide supporting details of his story, which he said was to protect the medical personnel involved as well as the boy’s family.



Announcing that the paper was no longer standing by the veracity of the Santa story,  editor Jack McElroy wrote on Wednesday afternoon that the paper “has done additional investigation in an attempt to independently verify Schmitt-Matzen’s account. This has proven unsuccessful. Although facts about his background have checked out, his story of bringing a gift to a dying child remains unverified. The News Sentinel cannot establish that Schmitt-Matzen’s account is inaccurate, but more importantly, ongoing reporting cannot establish that it is accurate.”

“Therefore,” McElroy wrote, “because the story does not meet the newspaper’s standards of verification, we are no longer standing by the veracity of Schmitt-Matzen’s account.”



Furthermore, The Washington Post was also unable to verify details of the story, however it did not disprove what Schmitt-Matzen had told the newspaper.

Venable, the veteran writer who wrote that story, learnt of the incident through “friends of friends”. He did not respond to requests for comment.

This article originally appeared on The Washington Post.