Not Real News
A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:
ClaimPhoto shows a wind turbine that melted in the Texas heat.
The FactsRecent damage to a wind turbine in southeastern Texas was not related to heat, according to a spokesperson for RWE Renewables, which operates the turbine.The company is investigating how the damage occurred, with a recent storm being one potential cause. A photo of the wind turbine with its blades slumped toward its base circulated widely on Facebook and Twitter this week, with social media users claiming a heat wave across the Southwest was responsible.“Current wave of heat melts a wind turbine in Texas,” wrote one Facebook user in a post viewed more than 50,000 times.The image does show real damage to a turbine in Matagorda County south of Houston, but high Texas temperatures didn't cause it to fail.“The damage to the turbine was definitely NOT related to heat or high temperatures,” RWE Communication Manager Matt Tulis said in an email to The Associated Press. “We did have damage to one of the turbines on our project in Matagorda County, Texas, potentially resulting from a storm last week.
ClaimVideo shows Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg arguing that climate change isn't real.
The FactsTeenage climate crusader Greta Thunberg hasn't flipped her position on climate change, but a manipulated video that circulated widely on Instagram this week was edited to make it look that way.In the clip, MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan asks Thunberg how she would respond if the president asked her how to address climate change. Thunberg responds that she would tell him nothing, because that wouldn't be democratic, and she wouldn't want an elected leader to do anything without voter support. “So I would just tell him to tell the situation as it is,” Thunberg says. The camera appears to jump slightly, and Thunberg continues: “Since the climate crisis doesn't exist, how can we expect people to want climate action?”Instagram users shared the clip with captions claiming Thunberg called the climate crisis “a HOAX” and “speaks out in a different way than she used to about climate change.” However, the edited clip cuts out a key part of the interview that reveals Thunberg's point was to emphasize the severity of the crisis, not diminish it.In the original March 7 interview, after explaining that she wouldn't want an elected leader to act without voter support, Thunberg said world leaders should convey the seriousness of the crisis to their constituents.
ClaimJuneteenth is “the day Republicans freed slaves from Democrat slave owners.” Shortly after, “the NRA was formed to help Black people defend themselves against the Democrats' Ku Klux Klan.”
The FactsThe NRA was not formed to help Black people defend themselves against the klan. Rather, it began as an organization to improve marksmanship among members of the New York National Guard after the Civil War.Enslaved people were freed by the Union Army, not a political party. The false claims circulated after President Biden signed into law the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, making June 19 a federal holiday.The holiday marks the date Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas. Although the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in the South in 1863, it could not be enforced in many places until after the end of the Civil War in 1865.
