Photo of newspaper was edited to add ‘President Gore’ headline
CLAIM: Photo shows the front page of The Washington Times on Nov. 8, 2000, with the prominent headline “President Gore″ and a photo of that year’s Democratic presidential candidate, Al Gore. Since Gore ultimately lost the election to George W. Bush, the image shows that the newspaper initially reported the election results incorrectly.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. This altered image has been circulating on the internet for at least 10 years. The Washington Times never ran a “President Gore” headline, it confirmed on Twitter on Sunday.
THE FACTS: One day after The Associated Press and other media outlets called the presidential election for Joe Biden, conservative social media users were sharing a doctored image of a decades-old newspaper to add fuel to their claim that the media can get race calls wrong.
Tim Murtaugh, communications director for President Donald Trump’s campaign, posted the fake image on Twitter on Sunday morning.
“Greeting staff at @TeamTrump HQ this morning, a reminder the media doesn’t select the President,” Murtaugh wrote in a tweet that has since been deleted.
Former Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka also shared and later deleted the image on Sunday, and several versions of the image were circulating on Facebook.
However, a reverse-image search proves this manipulated image is fake and has been circulating for at least a decade. A version of it was published on the blog Deviant Art as early as 2010, the website says.
In response to Murtaugh’s post on Sunday, The Washington Times confirmed the image was false, saying in a tweet, “Those photos have been doctored. The Washington Times never ran a ‘President Gore’ headline.”
In recent days, Trump and his supporters have repeatedly claimed that Biden “stole” the election and that “if you count the legal votes,” Trump actually won. These claims are baseless. Neither Trump’s campaign aides nor election officials have identified substantial numbers of “illegal” votes or any evidence of widespread voter fraud.
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This is part of The Associated Press’ ongoing effort to fact-check misinformation that is shared widely online, including work with Facebook to identify and reduce the circulation of false stories on the platform.
Here’s more information on Facebook’s fact-checking program: https://www.facebook.com/help/1952307158131536