STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.
Did a CNN report contain a banner that described an explosion in Ukraine as "mostly peaceful"? No, that's not true: The banner was fake, part of a running joke about CNN chyrons that are directly refuted by the images they describe. This example included obvious indicators that it was an attempt at being satirical.
The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) on February 24, 2022. The post included an image of what looked like a news report from CNN. The text banner of the news report reads:
FIREY BUT MOSTLY PEACEFUL EXPLOSION IN THE UKRAINE
This is what the post looked like on Facebook on March 1, 2022:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Tue Mar 1 16:29:21 2022 UTC)
The image provides several clues that it is fabricated. The banner refers to Ukraine as "The Ukraine," which is not only erroneous, but is also not consistent with CNN's other references to the country, as shown in CNN videos discussing the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russia found here and here.
The word fiery is misspelled in the banner as "firey."
The smaller banner with national weather in various cities lists summer temperatures, with Boston at 87 degrees, New York City at 90 degrees and Philadelphia at 91 degrees. Since the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russia, which began in late February 2022, temperatures have not reached those levels in Boston, New York City and Philadelphia.
Additionally, the banner clearly contains superimposed text. The blurry areas around the banner text and the sharp, white, inconsistent lines around the block of CNN information are characteristic of a digitally manipulated image.
More Lead Stories fact checks about the Russia-Ukraine conflict can be found here.
Updates:
-
2022-03-02T01:48:18Z 2022-03-02T01:48:18Z Updated to emphasize the connection to a running social media joke about CNN chyrons.
