On October 30, a post circulated in a Russian Facebook group, claiming that American TV hosts were laughing on air while a report about Ukraine’s casualties was being broadcat. The screenshot shows Ukrainian flags raised on graves, along with the caption, “The Pentagon is concerned about the mass casualties in the ranks of the AFU [Armed Forces of Ukraine].”
The same claim, along with the attached video, had previously circulated on other Facebook and Telegram accounts (1;2).
The video circulating on social media is edited. The image shown on the studio screen has been altered. The show did not discuss the Russia-Ukraine war, nor did it show any graves. The hosts’ reaction was caused by a mistake made by one of them – unrelated to Ukraine.
The video bears the logo of the TV channel KMA X31 and the name of the show, “Good Day.” The TV channel is part of the CBS group. The examination of its website did not reveal any report about the Pentagon being concerned over Ukrainian casualties.
To create the fabricated video, footage from the 2019 segment of Good Day Sacramento was used. The original video is available on the show’s official YouTube channel under the title Blooper of the Day. In that segment, the host is presenting the weather forecast and accidentally says “disability” instead of “visibility.” This mistake prompts laughter from her and her colleagues.
In the original segment, the screen displays the caption “Holiday Travel,” not graves of Ukrainian soldiers in Kharkiv. The Russia-Ukraine war and Ukrainian casualties were not discussed in that segment, and no such footage appeared on the screen.
It should also be noted that the fabricated video adds the subtitle, “The Pentagon is concerned about the mass casualties in the ranks of the AFU,” creating the false impression that the report being aired addressed this topic. In reality, no such text appears in the original video.
The video was also reviewed by the Ukrainian fact-checking organization Stopfake.
Prepared by Ketevan Kupreishvili
Myth Detector Lab
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