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| - On the morning the 2024 Democratic National Convention began, Aug. 19, a user on X posted (archived) a picture with the words, "BREAKING: The DNC dyes Chicago River red to celebrate abortion." The image showed a view of the Chicago River flowing with bright red water. The post had received more than 639,000 views.
Some people responding to the post appeared to interpret the rumor as a factual recounting of real-life events. For example, users remarked, "This cannot be true," "For reals?," "Is this real?," "Is this true?" and "Is this legit?" just to name a few. Another user commented, "The line between parody and reality is nonexistent now."
However, as shown in a live webcam of the Chicago River, there was no evidence of anyone dyeing the river red.
Rather, as mentioned in a publicly displayed community note under the X post, the rumor about Democrats dyeing the river red to celebrate abortion originated with The Babylon Bee — a website that describes its output as being humorous or satirical in nature. Its "About" page states, in part, "The Babylon Bee is the world's best satire site, totally inerrant in all its truth claims. We write satire about Christian stuff, political stuff and everyday life." The page's description also references Snopes, writing, "Unlike other satire sites, everything we post is 100% verified by Snopes.com."
One user responded to the post to point out the photo's origins. According to a reverse-image search on TinEye.com (archived), which pointed to a CBS News article, the original picture featured the Chicago River dyed green for St. Patrick's Day. We will update this story if we locate the photographer's name and the date when they captured the photo.
In a reply under the post, the same user said, "The fact that most people believe this is real.. Tells a lot about the state of our country."
Seth Dillon, the CEO of The Babylon Bee, then responded to that: "It was more obviously satire when the Bee posted it."
Dillon's reply included a link to a post on X from @TheBabylonBee, which occurred just one minute before the other user reposted the image with a "breaking" news caption, without mentioning the publication.
For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources that call their output humorous or satirical.
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