Republican politicians were hoaxed over the weekend by an image purporting to be a downed US warplane crew member rescued by military special forces in Iran on Saturday, igniting a call for a national “crash course in media literacy”.
Greg Abbott, the Texas governor, Ken Paxton, the state’s attorney general and a US senate candidate and Mike Lawler, a New York representative, were all caught out for “liking” a fake picture of the airman, who has not been publicly identified.
Donald Trump on Monday afternoon was scheduled to hold a news conference in which he was expected to discuss details of the rescue mission.
The AI-generated image that fooled the Republican politicos was shared by a pro-Trump X account. The supposed airman is shown surrounded by smiling military members, with a US flag draped across his lap.
After Abbott’s error, Billy Binion of the libertarian magazine Reason wrote: “This kind of stuff is bleak. I get that we’re in a new era, but we desperately need a new crash course in media literacy, or just a reminder to be remotely discerning.”
9 Comments
voidsignal@lemmy.world · 75 pts · 165d
Republicans are fooled by anything.
newtraditionalists@kbin.melroy.org · 42 pts · 165d
republican = fool
BillyClark@piefed.social · 20 pts · 165d
"There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again." - George W Bush
Scubus@sh.itjust.works · 14 pts · 165d
"America's enemies never stop looking for ways to harm our citizens, and neither do we." - George W Bush
raglan@lemmy.world · 26 pts · 165d
Came here to post that most of them have already been fooled into being republicans and how that tracks. Looks like y'all got this covered though.
Eldritch@piefed.world · 19 pts · 165d
We could save ourselves a lot of time writing Headlines by just cutting it off mid sentence.
desiccated_event@piefed.blahaj.zone · 8 pts · 165d
Wag the dog.
driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br · 8 pts · 165d
There were also a fake image of an American soldier captured by Iranian soldiers, but I guess that one hadn't a lot of track.
night_petal@piefed.social · 1 pts · 165d
There was a report on NPR today that mentioned the CIA faking a report in order to actually rescue him. I don't know ow for certain of this is what fooled Republicans or not since the article doesn't mention the CIA.