No, Oprah’s charity didn’t spend millions on 300 coats | Fact check

A Sept. 26 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows a photo of billionaire media mogul Oprah Winfrey.
“Oprah’s ‘Coats for Kids’ Charity Took in $140 Million and Only Bought 310 Jackets,” text in the image states.
The Instagram post received more than 300 likes in four days.
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The claim is a fabrication. It originated on a Facebook account that shares satirical content.
With an empire that includes decades of talk shows, a television network, a magazine and a charity that has donated hundreds of millions of dollars, Winfrey is one of the world’s most influential women.
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But the Instagram post’s claim that her charity raised millions of dollars only to purchase 310 jackets is false. There are no credible news reports about Winfrey’s charity participating in a coats-for-kids program of that magnitude or of it improperly using its funds in such a way.
The claim was first shared in a Sept. 22 Facebook post from an account affiliated with the America’s Last Line of Defense satirical network. The account’s bio states in part that “nothing on this page is real.” A comment under the Facebook post contains a link to a longer article that also is labeled as a fabrication. Christopher Blair, who operates the account, previously told USA TODAY “I don’t publish the truth on any of the websites you’ll find on ALLOD.”
The image shown in the Facebook post includes a watermark that identifies it as satire. While the Instagram post uses the same image and text, the watermark is cropped out of that version.
The Instagram post is an example of what could be called “stolen satire,” where content originally presented as satire is captured and reposted in a way that makes it appear to be legitimate news. As a result, readers of the second-generation post are misled, which is what happened here.
USA TODAY has previously debunked false claims that Winfrey donated $150 million to VIce President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign but gave nothing to Maui wildfire victims, that police found human remains at her former home and that Sen. JD Vance, the Republican nominee for vice president, was a guest on her talk show in the 1980s.
USA TODAY reached out to the Instagram user who shared the post but did not immediately receive a response.
Snopes previously debunked a version of the claim.
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