Did CNN praise the Taliban for wearing masks in Afghanistan? No, that's not true: The image of a CNN chyron claiming Taliban fighters were wearing masks as they attacked is fake -- it is from the Babylon Bee, a conservative satire website.
The claim appeared as a post (archived here) where it was published on Facebook on August 14, 2021. It opened:
This is no joke, CNN praised Taliban fighters for proper garb during a pandemic
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Aug 16 16:42:58 2021 UTC)
This actually is a joke.
The fake CNN chyron read, "TALIBAN FIGHTERS RESPONSIBLY WEARING MASKS."
Some users on social media apparently believed the satire story was true and shared it as legitimate news:
The original article was published on Babylonbee.com, titled, "CNN Praises Taliban For Wearing Masks During Attack."
The Babylon Bee satire posts have often been mistaken for real news, as Lead Stories has previously debunked. Readers can recreate that search on Lead Stories here.
The Babylon Bee has the following disclaimer on its "about" page:
What is The Babylon Bee?
The Babylon Bee is the world's best satire site, totally inerrant in all its truth claims. We write satire about Christian stuff, political stuff, and everyday life.
The Babylon Bee was created ex nihilo on the eighth day of the creation week, exactly 6,000 years ago. We have been the premier news source through every major world event, from the Tower of Babel and the Exodus to the Reformation and the War of 1812. We focus on just the facts, leaving spin and bias to other news sites like CNN and Fox News.
If you would like to complain about something on our site, take it up with God.
Unlike other satire sites, everything we post is 100% verified by Snopes.com.
