Reuters is taking heat for fact-checking a meme of Joe Biden walking away from a speech that his wife made last year, making it look like the president was distracted by an ice cream truck
“Social media users are sharing a video of U.S. President Joe Biden walking away momentarily during a speech given by U.S. First Lady Jill Biden and claiming that he was distracted by an ice cream truck. The video being shared, however, has been digitally edited to include music usually played by an ice cream truck,” wire service Reuters reported on Sunday.
The outlet wrote this in reply to a post made by a Twitter user, which is attached below. The tweet went viral and inspired others like it which prompted the Reuters’ response.
Reuters linked an unedited video of the speech, which showed there was no ice cream truck music. We may never know what prompted the president to wander away while his wife made her speech.
“This video has been digitally edited to include ice cream truck music as U.S. President Joe Biden walked away momentarily during first lady Jill Biden’s speech,” Reuters concluded.
The Reuters’ fact-check also caught the attention of Twitter, which flagged the meme which prompted the response as “manipulated media” and linked to a page noting the outlet’s findings.
“A video circulated online of President Joe Biden walking away momentarily during a speech given by first lady Jill Biden has been overlayed with music usually played by an ice cream truck, Reuters reports. The original video is from September 10, 2021, when the couple spoke at Washington, D.C.’s Brookland Middle School about the COVID-19 pandemic and keeping children safe.”
Many social media users reacted with disbelief at the response.
“Oh for Pete’s sake,” journalist Jeryl Bier tweeted.
“They actually fact-checked this. Holy cow.” wrote another user.
https://twitter.com/bonchieredstate/status/1554113373729689607?s=20&t=e-yAUnu7nD4wOfEPjSnVHwSeth Abramson, the left-wing academic known for pushing Russiagate theories, was enraged by the original video, going on a tirade against “fake media.”
“How do I know Republicans have nothing on Biden? Because every day their pimple-faced, basement-dwelling trolls vomit up some fake media to try to establish a narrative of foolishness and incompetence that reality doesn’t bear out. If they had *anything*, they’d stick to reality,” he said.
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