Screenshot of fabricated CBC News article on Trudeau and climate change
Screenshot of fabricated CBC News article on Trudeau and climate change
(Reuters) - Social media users have shared a fabricated screenshot claiming to show a headline published by Canadian outlet CBC News which reports that Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said climate change is “partially to blame for increasing hatred being cast at politicians and journalists.” The headline, however, was fabricated.
The alleged headline reads: “Trudeau says climate change to blame for anger and resentment toward politicians.” The image also includes the following summary: “The Prime Minister says he believes climate change is at least partially to blame for the increasing hatred being cast at politicians and journalists.”
A tweet with the image posted by a verified user is viewable (here). Iterations can also be found on Facebook : (here) (here) (here).
The image circulated online after a news conference on Aug. 30 (youtu.be/7ecG1gO2HGo?t=1222) in which Trudeau was asked by a reporter about his perspective on the “rise in threats that the politicians are facing.” Trudeau pointed to the “increasing anxiety because of climate change” among other reasons, like the COVID-19 pandemic and addiction problems, issues that he considered have been putting “a lot of pressure” on communities across the country.
Fox News published a headline saying, “Trudeau slammed after blaming ‘anxiety over climate change’ for ‘rise in threats’ to politicians” (here).
Reuters found no evidence that CBC News published any such headline about Trudeau.
A CBC News spokesperson told Reuters via email that the image “is another in a series of faked screenshots. This is not real.”
A search on CBC News’ website did not return the alleged headline (archive.ph/zEUJd).
The image claims to show the article was authored by CBC News Senior writer Peter Zimonjic. No such piece can be found when looking at his writer’s profile (here).
A keyword search on CBC News Twitter verified account did not return tweets referring to the supposed headline (archive.ph/XcU7b).
VERDICT
False. CBC News did not publish an article with the headline “Trudeau says climate change to blame for anger and resentment toward politicians.”
