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| - Fact Check: US Press Sec prioritises press conference over wife's death? 2008 satire video fools people
This supposed Deputy Press Secretary, who dodged questions about his late wife in a press conference to focus on important issues, is an actor.
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India Today Fact Check
This video is a work of fiction made by a satirical website called The Onion.
A video making the rounds on social media shows a US Deputy Press Secretary allegedly holding a press conference at the White House right after losing his wife to a tragic accident. Many on social media were stunned to see the man dodging questions from reporters about his dead wife to prioritise the US President's agenda and issues of national significance. An archived version of this post can be seen here.
India Today, in its investigation, found that this video was made by The Onion, a satirical news website. It’s not a real incident.
Our Probe
A keyword search for the supposed Deputy Press Secretary, Theodore Barrett, as mentioned in the viral video, fetched multiple articles stating that there isn’t and was never a Deputy Press Secretary in the White House by that name.
Further searches led us to an extended version of the viral clip shared in March 2008 by The Onion.
The Onion is a satirical news website based in Chicago that has more than 20 million followers across the world. Its satirical news reports are often taken seriously, and this has thus resulted in the creation of the subreddit “Ate The Onion”, which chronicles social media users who fall for obviously satirical headlines.
We found several other videos of this “Theodore Barrett”, a character created by The Onion, holding press conferences on its official YouTube channel. One video from December 2008 shows a press conference held by Barrett in a similar fashion - this time about the President’s strategy to defeat a monster seen in Manhattan. Another showed him speaking gibberish while answering questions from reporters about the President’s stance on the Medicare Reform Bill.
The Onion also created the character of Deputy Press Secretary Debra Browning, and here is a satirical news video featuring her. We noticed the reporters seen in this video are exactly the same people, sitting in the same order, and performing the same actions as seen in the viral clip. A comparison between the two can be seen below.
Per the archives of the White House, in 2008, when George W Bush was the President of the United States, Dana Perino was the Press Secretary, and Tony Fratto, Scott Stanzel, and Gordon Johndroe did press briefings as Deputy Press Secretaries.
Thus, it’s clear that people fell for a 2008 satirical news report.
(Written by Sanjana Saxena)
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