Did MSNBC air old 2017 footage of a large crowd in Boston Common and misrepresent it as live footage of the Oct.2025 No Kings protest? No, that's not true: The footage shows the October 18, 2025 No Kings protest as it was taking place. The 2017 protest mentioned on social media took place in a different area of the Boston Common as could be verified by looking at landmarks visible in the footage.
The video clip appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on Oct. 19, 2025 by @ThePatriotOasis. It was captioned:
🚨BREAKING: Analysts are calling this the biggest FRAUD in American history. MSNBC falsely aired a Video from 2017 claiming it was LIVE footage from yesterday's "No Kings" rally in Boston.
MSNBC purposely wanted to portray a massive turnout for "No Kings." Which was a LIE.
This is how the video clip appeared in the post:
(Image Source: Lead Stories screenshot from x.com/thepatriotoasis/status/1979914255546687843.)
In the upper left corner of the video clip is what appears to be a screenshot of a proposed Community Note. The text reads:
Rate proposed Community Notes
Not shown on X. Needs ratingsThis video is from a 2017 Boston protest, not today's No Kings rally, which was indeed a large event with tens of thousands attending per reports.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Fr...
reuters.com/world/us/no-ki...
usatoday.com/story/news/nat...
The information in this proposed note is not correct. The footage does show the Oct. 18, 2025 No Kings Protest in Boston Common.
Raw footage (pictured below) of a 2017 counter-protest was posted on YouTube by CBS 17 on Aug. 19, 2017 (archived here). The aerial footage was filmed over Boston a week after the Unite the Right rally happened in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Boston Free Speech Rally was only attended by a small group who were inside the Parkman Bandstand (pictured at the bottom edge of the screenshot). Boston police commissioner estimated 40,000 people attended counter protests in the city. Those at Boston Common were kept a distance from the Free Speech group in the bandstand by police officers and barricade fencing.
(Image Source: Lead Stories screenshot from youtube.com/watch?v=laeLz_P2nqw.)
Pictured below is a Lead Stories markup with the satellite view of Boston Common as it appears in 2025 imagery on Google's Instant Streetview. The red circle indicates where the 2017 protest image (pictured above) was focused.
(Image Source: Lead Stories screenshot from instantstreetview.com/@42.355143,-71.066572,18z,2t.)
The Yellow rectangle (above) indicates the area where the No Kings protest crowd gathered to hear the speakers on the morning of Oct. 18, 2025. Another clip of aerial footage of the No Kings rally was aired by NBC10 Boston (pictured below), live at 11:15 a.m. -- just twenty minutes before the live clip which was aired by MSNBC. This NBC10 video was posted on YouTube on Oct.18, 2025 (archived here).
(Image Source: Lead Stories screenshot from youtu.be/0jbOo6io3H8?si=wwoKlfFnbb2Mgl2k&t=80.)
Lead Stories reached out to MSNBC for comment and will update this article if appropriate.
