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I came across this footage on youtube. It shows CNN anchor Charles Jaco broadcasting what seems to be a fake news story about the 1990 gulf war, using a stage, fake palms, fake sounds, etc.

This article also claims that these were fake news, used to deceive the people: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-10/leaked-footage-exposes-cnn-producing-fake-news-during-first-gulf-war:

Leaked footage has emerged of Charles Jaco when he was the CNN anchor made internationally famous for heroically covering the 1990 Persian Gulf War.

The first part of this video shows the stage set he was on while he clowns around with fellow CNN staff. The Saudi Arabian “hotel” in the background is adorned by fake palm trees and a blue wall in a studio. This clip was leaked by CNN staff.

The second part of this video is a live CNN satellite feed recorded onto VHS showing the final cut. Charles Jaco is wearing a different jacket, but he had the same act. Even though the acting is terrible as Charles Jaco wore a gas mask, and his fellow correspondent Carl Rochelle wore a helmet—the American public were manipulated and duped en masse. The sirens and missile sound effects are part of the stage set. The camera never pans out or shows the sky as they appear terrified of chemical weapons being dropped from above.

These clips are the highest quality of this newscast and behind the scenes. And yes, Charles Jaco was a reporter for CNN and then worked as a reporter for FOX 2 NOW in Saint Louis, Missouri.

On the other hand, this article on metabunk.org claims that they really were located in Suaid Arabia and there is nothing strange about the footage.

So was this a legitimate news story or not?

Adrenaxus
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  • Could you please specify _what_ question this is a duplicate of? Thanks. _Edit_: overlooked the link you inserted. Thank you. – Adrenaxus Jul 26 '17 at 07:44
  • One thing to recall - "fake news" can easily be absence of reporting on a topic, NOT just saying false things when reporting. Or invalid spin. CNN practiced both, as did most mainstream US media. – user5341 Jul 27 '17 at 02:55
  • Yes, a half-truth is often much more dangerous than a genuine lie. – Adrenaxus Jul 27 '17 at 07:15
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    No user5341, fake news does not mean spin or presentation someone disagrees with, it means a completely fabricated story. Some politicians have twisted the term to use as a general slur against unfavorable or ideologically different reporting, but the term was coined to describe *completely invented* fake stories. Use "biased reporting" if there's a basis in fact but you think the spin shows bias – user56reinstatemonica8 Jul 27 '17 at 08:57
  • @user568458 - when you're the main news source people trust, not printing about a story is **effectively** (in its result) the same thing as printing that the story didn't happen. When the story did happen, you **effectively** lied by making people believe it didn't. The technical mechanism used to achieve that result is irrelevant. Additionally, most of what people call "fake news" that are called that are actually real news - just with important facts removed to change the story in desired direction. Same exact approach, just on a more granular level. – user5341 Jul 27 '17 at 12:00
  • @user568458 - also, I have 2 words for you: Dan Rather. – user5341 Jul 27 '17 at 12:02
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    @user5341 - Rather used one improperly vetted piece of "evidence" in a story that was demonstrably true, and had many other well-vetted sources to back it up, so I'm not sure if you're using those two words properly, any more than your definition of what fake news is. – PoloHoleSet Jul 27 '17 at 15:04

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