A video shows dozens of clips of news anchors saying, “Taylor Swift is not a psyop” in a uniform manner surfaced on Internet. Towards the end of the video, these anchors collectively state: “This is extremely dangerous to our democracy”.
The video is shared on Facebook with a caption: “Proof Taylor Swift is not a Government Psyop”.
Here’s the link to the above post.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the above claim, and found it to be digitally altered.
Putting the video keyframes through Google Reverse Image Search, the NM team traced an X post by the sports network Deadspin with a similar video, dated April 01, 2018, and a caption: “How America’s largest local TV owner turned its news anchors into soldiers in Trump’s war on the media”. We noticed that the audio is different from the viral video.
It shows various anchors reading from a script about journalistic integrity and the danger of misinformation. The video includes a mash-up of the anchors saying: “This is extremely dangerous to our democracy.”
According to NPR report published on April 02, 2018, the script was authored by Sinclair Broadcasting Group, the largest broadcaster in the country, and circulated to nearly 200 of its news stations at the time. This purported “must-run” segment was mandated in reaction to the criticism regarding “fake news” voiced by backers of former President Donald Trump.
Thus, it is confirmed that an old unrelated video from 2018 is shared with a false claim. The original video shows the anchors reading an identical script about journalistic integrity, as required by their parent company.
If you want to fact-check any story, WhatsApp it now on +91 11 7127 9799
Error: Contact form not found.