In April 2023, Russian and international media reported a courier case, allegedly what happened to the American president and British prime minister. We checked whether such a description of the situation of reality corresponds.

April 16 in the program "News of the week"On the Rossiya channel, presenter Dmitry Kiselev began his story about the recent first -person visit of the United States to the UK and Ireland with the following words:" In Northern Ireland, Joe Biden was received this week. On Tuesday, the British prime minister personally arrived to meet the American president at the Belfast military airfield. But Biden contemptuously dismissed Rishi Sunak, taking him either for the footman or for the porter. Instead of the prime minister, he eventually welcomed some general. ”

Previously "RIA Novosti»With reference to the British publication, Daily Mail reported:" The US president dismissed the prime minister immediately after landing, many saw an insulting diplomatic gesture in this. " Wrote about this case Lenta.ru, "Russian newspaper","Gazeta.ru","News"And other media. The news has gained great popularity into Telegram, where channels shared it "Ax 18+"(1.7 million views at the time of writing this analysis),"Live broadcast"(636 000),"Operation Z: Warrixes of Russian Spring"(438 000),"Russia now"(314,000),"Telegram novin service - Ukrainian"(308 000),"V z view.ru"(274 000),"Media Russia not Moscow"(232 000),"Newsach / Dv"(217 000),"Truthfulness"(206 000). Many of these posts were accompanied by a 16-second video, allegedly confirming the information distributed.

April 11 US President Joe Biden Arrived to Northern Ireland on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of signing Belfast agreementwho put an end to the protracted ethnopolitical conflict in this region. The second purpose of the visit was Visit The Republic of Ireland and, in particular, the county of Meyo, from where the ancestors of Biden came from.

"Board number 1" of the US Air Force Landed At the Belfasta International Airport (and not at all at the military airfield, according to Kiselev) at about 9 pm in local time. The American president was met by three high -ranking British. The first of them, of course, was Rishi Sunak - chapter The governments of the United Kingdom, part of which is Northern Ireland. The second official is the Minister of Northern Ireland Affairs in the Sunak government Christopher Christopher Hiton Harris. Finally, the third representative of Great Britain at the airfield became lord-lieutenant (that is, the personal representative of the British monarch) of the county is atrim David McCorkell. It is in a characteristic cap with a red pending that we see in that part of the video where Biden seems to push Sunaka and approaches a man in uniform. And it was his Dmitry Kiselev called him "some kind of general."

But let's take a look at how it all looks like on the video from Sky News, from which, judging by the logo of the television company, a short video was cut out on social networks. April 12 on the Sky News YouTube channel appeared a ten-minute reportage From the scene. And its beginning generally corresponds to a virus video: Biden descends along the ladder, then it is shown how he slaps Sunaka on the arm in a friendly second, after which he moves away, and the American president welcomes McCorkell.

However, there is another on the Sky News website videoWhich in much more details presents us the moment of Biden's meeting with the British delegation. This also applies to a long descent along the ramp, and the four-second episode, during which Baiden exchanges a hands with the British Prime Minister, manages to tell him a couple of phrases and only then his gaze addresses the Lieutenant Lord. Similarly, events develop on video at The Sun And The Independent.

Thus, the reason for the emergence of “scandalous” news was not a very successful installation of the video from Sky News, which was then twisted in social networks and the media. It should be noted that one of the main distributors (3.7 million views, 11,000 retweets) of a 16-second video with a wrong commentary among Western users was the pro-Russian Twitter account Spriterwho previously already He became The “hero” of analysis is “verified”. In Russian-speaking Telegram channels, the news dispersed even earlier, including 20-second video With the BBC logo, from which you can draw a similar false conclusion.

Photo on the cover: Flickr/social networks