Is Vivek Murthy, the Biden administration's surgeon general, computer-generated imagery (CGI)? No, that's not true: The duty officer in the Pentagon press office told Lead Stories that Murthy "is 100% a real person." The claim came from a website that features a disclaimer warning readers not to take its content at face value.
The claim originated in an article published by Real Raw News on January 15, 2022, titled "Military: Biden's Surgeon General is CGI" (archived here) that opened:
The entity masquerading as the administration's surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, is not a man but computer-generated imagery (CGI) superimposed on a dynamic algorithm that pushes a fictitious Covid narrative from some hidden crevice in Washington, D.C., said Lt. David Hoffer, a program analyst at U.S. Army Cyber Command Headquarters at Fort Gordon.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Military: Biden's Surgeon General is CGI - Real Raw News
Lead Stories emailed the Pentagon about this claim. They responded on January 18, 2022, with an email stating:
He is 100% a real person.
Real Raw News has a long history of publishing false claims in mock news stories, many of them about convictions and executions of various public figures at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. For example, the site reported former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was hanged (she wasn't); former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta was executed (he wasn't); and that "the military" convicted former Attorney General William Barr on charges of treason (it didn't).
The website for Real Raw News includes a disclaimer that warns readers not to take its content too seriously. Specifically, it says:
Information on this website is for informational and educational and entertainment purposes. This website contains humor, parody, and satire. We have included this disclaimer for our protection, on the advice on legal counsel.
(Source: RealRawNews.com screenshot taken Tue Aug 3 16:39:48 UTC 2021)
Lead Stories has covered claims published by Real Raw News in the past. Previous Lead Stories debunks of Real Raw News items is collected here.
