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Top 5 Dumb Game News Screw-ups

Top 5 Dumb Game News Screw-ups

Recently, CNN ran another politically charged story surrounding the claims that Russia had hacked the US presidential election in an attempt to put their guy in power. In a strange twist, CNN used an image from Bethesda’s Fallout 4 during their coverage of the story. A Reddit user by the name of Poofylicious caught the gaffe and put the media giant on worldwide blast. This hilarious display of “reporting” led us to dig a little deeper into the history of news outlets using video game images and videos to prop up their stories – hope you enjoy!

For Mother Russia

For Mother Russia

You couldn’t possibly make this stuff up. Apparently, in May of last year, the Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom posted an image of three green trucks with the caption, “Extremists near Aleppo received several truckloads of chemical ammo.” Simple and harmless enough, right? Wrong. The embassy’s twitter handle, @RussianEmbassy, used a photo from Command & Conquer to highlight their post. Of course, the gaming community lit them up like a Christmas tree for the hilarious mixup.

Epic Fail

Epic Fail

A Danish news media outlet ran a story about the unrest in Syria during 2013. Their broadcast featured a beautiful photo of Syria’s capital, Damascus, as the backdrop for their report. Of course, the backdrop photo wasn’t of Damascus or a city even remotely close. In fact, the photo was from the original Assassin’s Creed game released in 2007. I think I see Desmond Miles sitting on a bench in the bottom left corner…

Master of All Things Foreign Diplomacy

Master of All Things Foreign Diplomacy

In 2012, the BBC ran a story criticizing the UN Security Council for various actions during the time. Midway through the broadcast, BBC displayed a logo of what they thought was the United Nations Security Council. However, the media outlet used the famed UNSC logo from the Halo franchise instead of the UN Security Council. The even more hilarious part is that two logos look nothing alike. Bloody hell, BBC!

Snake Eyes

Snake Eyes

Most gamers will remember this one as it seemed to linger on the interwebs for far too long. A Russian news outlet, SophiCo, ran a story about child soldiers fighting in Sudan. The emotionally charged story was deep, insightful, and even contained a few photos from everyone’s favorite franchise, Metal Gear Solid . In fact, Metal Gear Solid 5: Phantom Pain was the title featured in the story about civil war and children fighting in Sudan, not about Snake doing work.

Irony, It’s Like an Old Wooden Ship

Irony, It’s Like an Old Wooden Ship

Good ol’ Fox News ran a story in 2014 about the nation’s lax immigration policy. In a sprawling backdrop behind the reports was a piece of BioShock Infinite game art that read, “Defending the Homeland.” The ironic part wasn’t that Fox News had stolen the game art, but rather what it stood for – the exact opposite of the sentiment Fox News was trying to convey during it’s news story. That’s some high-quality journalistic integrity.

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