CNN Did Not Call Afghanistan Transfer of Power "Violent But Peaceful"
The Claim
CNN aired a caption that said that Afghanistan was seeing a “violent but mostly peaceful transfer of power.”
News posted on
Emerging story
Last weekend, the Afghan military and government collapsed. After a range of news networks across the world covered the story, soon, what some believed to be a screenshot from the U.S. cable news network CNN appeared online. This alleged screenshot came from a reporter in Kabul, and featured a caption that stated, “VIOLENT BUT MOSTLY PEACEFUL TRANSFER OF POWER.”
Possibly the most popular post of this image had gained thousands of interactions on Facebook. The image has also gained attention on other social media platforms, such as Twitter.
Misbar’s Analysis
MENA: Misbar’s investigation concludes that the image is fake, which is detectable through a close examination. In the full-size version of the image, it is clearly visible that the reporter has been cut away from a separate image and pasted into an image of Kabul. The edge of the reporter’s body has a rigid line indicating this. There are also sharp lines at various points at the edge of the reporter’s body/clothing, such as on the top right of his hat and around his ear.
A clue as to the origin of the foreground of the image is on the right-hand side. A boxout states that CNN will be airing footage of the Republican National Convention in 13 hours, 54 minutes, and 17 seconds. Republican National Conventions only occur in years when there are US presidential elections. There is no election in 2021, meaning that the foreground of the image must date to 2020 at the latest.
A reverse image search confirms that the foreground image comes from 2020 in a Newsweek article that discusses how CNN was mocked online for its coverage of the Kenosha, Wisconsin riots. Embedded into this article is a tweet that contains a video clip of the reporter in the foreground, as well as the box out for the Republican National Convention. The caption of this segment is similar to the recent image. It states, “FIERY BUT MOSTLY PEACEFUL PROTESTS AFTER POLICE SHOOTING.”
The background of the image is a photograph of a Chinook helicopter hovering above the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. This replaced the original background in the report, which was in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Some users that have shared this image have labeled it as satire, which was possibly the original intention of the image.
