Is it true that Newsweek magazine released a cover with a parody of a meme about a dog in a fire, instead of which Zelensky?

In March 2023, a drawing allegedly published in the American magazine began to spread in social networks, in which the dog from a popular meme was replaced by the president of Ukraine, who was watching on television of negotiations in Russia and China. We checked the authenticity of this image.

IN original The memeem is depicted an anthropomorphic dog that sits in a burning room and tries to assure himself that “everything is in order” (this is fine). If you believe the posts in social networks, then the artist of the American magazine Newsweek redrawn the meme by replacing the animal with Vladimir Zelensky, who says: “Everything is wrong” (this is not fine). At the same time, on the TV in front of the Ukrainian leader shows a handshake against the background of the flags of Russia and China - this reference to the meeting of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin with the chairman of China Xi Jinping, who Arrived To Moscow on March 20, 2023. On the cover there is also an inscription "The arrest warrant of Putin did not stop the chairman of SI." We are talking about a warrant that issued The International Criminal Court three days before the official visit of the Chinese leader to Russia.

The alleged cover of Newsweek began to disperse on the Internet since March 21. For example, in their social networks it was placed by Russian pro -government media "Ukraine.ru" And "Tsargrad TV". The image also appeared in many publics in VKontakte devoted to the so -called special operation (examples here, here, here And here). In Telegram, the picture posted channels "DPR 🅉 info 🇷🇺"(49,000 views), Swiss Vatnik (13,000), "Before everyone else. Well, almost. Special operation"(11,000),"Unnecessary"(10,000), Militarymaps | Z 🇷🇺 (9000), ""Club "Lev Scharan""(9000) and DR. At the same time, some posts contain the same phrase: “Fake or not, we could not check, but the picture turned out to be a sign. Credit. "

Newsweek is a weekly edition, the fresh issues of which are released on Wednesdays, and the cover usually indicates the date corresponding to the next Friday. However, the viral picture says that this is a special issue (Special Issue) for March 21, 2023 (Tuesday). "Verified" studied the official one website publications, as well as his accounts in social networks (Facebook*, Instagram* And Twitter) And there was neither a caricature of a parody of a meme, nor a cover with it. Moreover, on Newsweek there is archive With all the covers until 2013 - we checked them and did not find a single special issue, designed as shown in the viral picture. The phrase Issue has never placed the SPECIAL ISSUE under the name of the magazine - this mark was printed at the upper boundary of the cover. The covers made the covers in the same way special election issue (Special Election Issue), Climate change (Climate Change Issue), special Oscar release (Oscars Special) and special health release (Special Health Issue) for 2017. We have found several exceptions - special issues about health for 2016 And 2015 years, as well Special Cancer release (Special Cancer Issue), but even there the corresponding mark was placed not directly under the name of the magazine. The only spacer -block with the design similar to the viral cover was in 2022, but on the other hand - then Newsweek published Special report (Special Report) on the topic of surveillance of China, who live abroad (in 2021 at another numbers The same mark was from above). In this case, these dates on the covers in all cases corresponded to Fridays.

Adding a signature signature - Favorite strategy authors fake covers about which in recent months "verified" repeatedly It wrote. In addition, Newsweek cover is not the first time when Zelensky was represented in the fake materials in the form of a dog. So, in the fall of 2022, three fake covers of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine, where the president of Ukraine was depicted in the image of a dog, and in February 2023 distributed on the network. appeared The false record of the broadcast of the American television channel, where allegedly accidentally showed the speech of Zelensky instead of a funny video with a barking puppy.

Two more factors indicate the false cover with the meme. Firstly, the phrase “lessons” of war in Iraq 20 years later ”(The Iraq War's“ Lessons ”20 Years Later), located at the upper part of the image, is written not by the font that has been used in real covers published on the publication’s website. This is especially noticeable in the apostrophe, as well as the letters "E" and "A".

Secondly, on the viral cover the date is written in the European format (03.21.2023), while in the American format, which is used on Newsweek covers, the month is first indicated, and then the number (03.21.2023). Moreover, the font is again different from the official one, which is especially noticeable in numbers 1, 2 and 3.

“Verified” failed to unambiguously establish the source of the fake, but the earliest publication we discovered appeared on March 21 at 12:08 Moscow time in the Telegram channel “Waiting"(8000 views). This channel has already met twice in the analysis of “verified”: they distributed there Fake photo ticket in the Kiev metro with the mention of nuclear war and Fake screenshot Polish site for booking hotels and housing with the option "without Ukrainians."

*Russian authorities They think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns social networks Facebook and Instagram, an extremist organization, its activities in Russia are prohibited.

Photo on the cover: social networks

Fake

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Is it true that scientists have learned to transform human stress into electricity?
2. Is it true that in the United States at the dog’s exhibition they included the anthem of Ukraine?
3. Is it true that a map of the future section of Russia was shown on the air of Chinese state television?