CNN’s Jake Tapper has come under fire for claiming Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is firing at his own citizens after he shared a misleading tweet showing army defectors on the opposition side wielding guns.
“CNN live in Venezuela as Maduro government mows down citizens in streets,” Tapper tweeted with a link that leads to a CNN video report starting with an image of a number of army defectors fighting on the side of the opposition. The video includes footage of what appears to be a National Guard truck hitting civilians, but Tapper’s tweet implies Maduro is gunning down citizens by using an image of soldiers with weapons.
According to AFP, the soldiers are members of the Bolivarian National Guard who have joined the opposition headed by self-declared ‘interim president’ Juan Guaido.
Tapper was soon called out by a crowd of irritated social media users who accused him of fake news, propaganda, “manufacturing consent,” and of failing to take two minutes to verify the image and claim he was making.
“A reporter would verify the picture and in two minutes would learn that the blue armbands are a sign of the mutinying troops,” journalist Vijay Prashad pointed out.
“Josef Goebbels would be proud of you!” another person tweeted, while others demanded Tapper retract the inaccurate statement.
Tapper is yet to respond to the criticism.
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