ABC Shows Fake Footage from North Syria

The mainstream media might be the worst institution in the United States – even worse than public education and the universities. They have the ear of the country and routinely use their influence to push raw political narratives under the guise of truthful reporting. Most of the time, they report on true stories but cherry pick certain facts to fit the narrative. Once in a while, they blatantly show false information. This is exactly what happened last Sunday.

ABC aired what was described as “shocking footage” from Northern Syria. The footage shows massive gunfire and explosions lighting up a dark sky. Tom Llamas, a news anchor, added commentary, ” . . . appearing to show Turkey’s military bombing Kurdish civilians in a Syrian border town. The Kurds, who fought alongside the U.S. against ISIS. Now, horrific reports of atrocities committed by Turkish-backed fighters on those very allies.” Llamas related the terrifying footage to President Trump’s decision to pull U.S. forces out of the region, “effectively abandoning America’s allies.” Taken at face value, this looks horrific.

The footage did not come from Syria. The footage was not from the Middle East. In fact, the footage was not even from this year. The video shown on ABC was from a gun range in the middle of Kentucky in 2017. Gun enthusiasts were putting on a gun-show-turned-pyrotechnic-spectacle. Military weaponry is often demonstrated at this biannual event, drawing large crowds. As a result, much footage of this live event is posted on social media. This is what exposed the footage from ABC as fake. ABC did apologize, but only on their Twitter account. No redaction was ever issued on the mainstream network.

This example is pretty common with the media. Run a false or misleading story on the front page, and issue the redaction in some obscure section of the paper (if they redact the story at all). Many Americans are very busy and don’t have time to read the entire news site or paper. Skimming headlines and first paragraphs, they believe a blatantly false narrative. Entire ideological structures are built regarding politics, world events and policy positions. Since the media is the PR wing of the Democrats, this plays in their favor.

Question everything – even the information you read on this page.

PC: New York Post.