FACT CHECK: Viral Image Claims MSNBC Aired ‘World War Z’ Clip During George Floyd Protest Coverage

Elias Atienza | Senior Reporter

An image shared on Facebook purportedly shows MSNBC airing footage from the action film “World War Z” during its coverage of George Floyd protests.

Verdict: False

MSNBC confirmed the screen grab was fake. It came from a doctored video that combined audio and graphics from an MSNBC report with a clip from the “World War Z” trailer.

Fact Check:

Cities across the U.S. have seen protests erupt following the death of Floyd, a black man who died in police custody after a Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck for over eight minutes, according to video of the incident. Derek Chauvin, the officer videotaped kneeling on Floyd’s neck, has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, per CNN.

The viral image juxtaposes two similar pictures: a screen grab of an alleged MSNBC broadcast and a screen grab of the “World War Z” movie trailer. Both screen grabs feature the same smoke-filled city skyline.

“MSNBC put this up which is from the movie World War Z,” reads the caption. “Trying to make the world believe our country is in total ruins.” (RELATED: Image Claims To Show People Driving A Stolen Train During Minneapolis Protests)

However, the screen grab of the supposed MSNBC broadcast is doctored. Four words above the MSNBC logo, though difficult to discern, read, “Bad Scooter. Not Real.”

Twitter user “Bad Scooter” took credit for creating the doctored video clip that the screen grab came from on June 1. The doctored video was created by superimposing the audio and graphics from an authentic MSNBC report with footage from “World War Z,” according to one of the user’s tweets.

“MSNBC never used the World War Z clip!! Period!” the user tweeted. “Audio taken from this real video last night (below), with graphics on top of a trailer ripped from YouTube. Again, MSNBC never never aired the WWZ footage!!”

MSNBC confirmed to Reuters that the edited video and screen grabs from it were fake.

Elias Atienza

Senior Reporter
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