Fact check: Image altered to show CNN report saying Taliban takeover was 'violent but mostly peaceful'

Devon Link, USA TODAY
·4 min read

The claim: CNN reported Afghanistan is having a 'violent but mostly peaceful transfer of power'

All eyes were on Afghanistan as the Taliban took control and the capital city of Kabul fell on Aug. 15. In the aftermath, CNN is taking heat for a report and graphic it did not air.

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“VIOLENT BUT MOSTLY PEACEFUL TRANSFER OF POWER,” reads the graphic in a widely shared image. The Aug. 15 post has garnered thousands of shares and reactions.

The image shows a reporter with a gas mask and goggles. Behind him is a military helicopter. Another graphic in the top left corner of the image identifies the scene as Kabul, Afghanistan.

A Taliban fighter in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 16, 2021.
A Taliban fighter in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 16, 2021.

Several Facebook and Instagram accounts have shared this image since Aug. 15.

Instagram user @the_18a_chronicles told USA TODAY they posted the image knowing it was altered but intending it to be understood as a joke.

Robert Hobbs from the Facebook page Being Libertarian told USA TODAY he also intended the post as "as a joke and reference our followers are aware of - as should just about anyone else that follows Facebook meme pages."

However, the comments indicate many users interpreted the post as a real CNN report.

"What a stupid comment," one wrote.

Another comment equated CNN to a trashcan emoji.

This image is altered and never aired

The altered image combines elements from three different photos: one promoting CNN's coverage of the 2020 Republican National Convention, one from an August 2020 CNN report on protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and one from Kabul.

Matt Dornic, head of strategic communications for CNN Worldwide, told USA TODAY CNN never produced the report shown in the viral image. According to Dornic, whoever altered the image pulled the graphic from unrelated coverage.

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"It’s a ridiculously fake image using graphics from our Republican National Convention coverage, a domestic correspondent and a fake chyron in the wrong font," he said.

The phrase in the graphic is similar to a controversial chyron CNN aired in August 2020. CNN was criticized after it reported that protests in Kenosha following the police shooting of Jacob Blake were “FIERY BUT MOSTLY PEACEFUL.”

The report included a graphic with that phrase and footage of Chicago-based correspondent Omar Jimenez standing in front of a burning building. CNN faced ridicule for the graphic and scenery, which some said were contradictory.

Framed through a burned out garbage truck, law enforcement officers use tear gas and armored vehicles to clear of park of protesters Tuesday, August 25, 2020 near the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis. Violent unrest broke out after video of the shooting of Jacob Blake, 29, was widely disseminated on social media Sunday. Blake was shot in the back several times by a Kenosha police officer.

"What you are seeing now, these images, came and come in stark contrast to what we saw over the course of the daytime hours in Kenosha and into the early evening, which were largely peaceful demonstrations in the face of law enforcement,” Jimenez reported.

An image of Jimenez making this report was superimposed onto a backdrop of Kabul to create the altered image. This is clear as Jimenez is wearing the same outfit, gas mask and goggles that he wore in Kenosha.

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Additionally, Jimenez is not in Kabul.

According to a recent tweet, he was in Chicago as of Aug. 13. USA TODAY could not find any evidence Jimenez, a domestic correspondent, has reported from Kabul in the days since.

Associated Press photojournalist Rahmat Gul photographed the background image of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul on Aug. 15.

The caption reads, "A U.S. Chinook helicopter flies over the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug. 15, 2021. Helicopters are landing at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul as diplomatic vehicles leave the compound amid the Taliban advance on the Afghan capital."

Jimenez was not in the original photo.

A U.S. helicopter flies over the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 15, 2021.
A U.S. helicopter flies over the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 15, 2021.

Reuters, PolitiFact, the Associated Press and Check Your Fact all concluded the image in the social media post was altered.

Our rating: Altered

Based on our research, a viral image that purports to show that CNN reported Afghanistan is having a "violent but mostly peaceful transfer of power" is ALTERED. The widely shared image is altered to include elements from an image of unrelated coverage, an image of an August 2020 CNN broadcast and an AP image of the evacuation in Kabul. A CNN spokesperson confirmed the network never aired this report.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Altered image shows fake CNN report on Taliban in Kabul