CLAIM: A video shows an MSNBC news broadcast reporting on a fake FEMA news conference about the wildfires on Maui.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The video shows a controversial news conference staged by the Federal Emergency Management Agency during wildfires in Southern California in 2007. FEMA staff members posed as reporters during the informational session although some reporters were allowed to call in but only to listen.
THE FACTS: Social media users are sharing an old news report about a fake FEMA press briefing and misrepresenting it as recent.
The video, now nearly 16 years old, shows an MSNBC news broadcast about a FEMA press conference where no members of the press were there in person, and the questions were asked by FEMA employees.
“FEMA caught,” reads the caption overlaying the video circulating on social media as current.
“Maui Fire - FEMA Caught Faking Maui Press Conference,” reads a post sharing the video on X, formerly known as Twitter. The video has more than 13,000 likes.
The MSNBC broadcast focused on the White House and Department of Homeland Security responses to the incident.
“It is not a practice that we would employ here at the White House and we certainly don’t condone it,” said Dana Perino, White House press secretary during the administration of President George W Bush. She goes on to reference the California wildfires.
“FEMA has issued an apology, and saying that they had an error in judgment when they were attempting to try to get out a lot of...
You are reading the second issue of the Disinformation Monitor. It is published on a monthly basis and provides an overview of developments on the disinformation scenes on NATO’s eastern frontier....