Facts Matter: Harris rally crowd not A.I. generated
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, has been drawing large crowds for her campaign events. During an Aug. 7 stop in Detroit, Mich., Harris and her running mate Tim Walz spoke from a hanger at the city’s airport, while the crowd was packed in around them.
But former President Donald Trump claimed it was all made up.
“Has anyone noticed that Kamala CHEATED at the airport? There was nobody at the plane, and she ‘A.I.’d’ it, and showed a massive ‘crowd’ of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN’T EXIST!,” Trump wrote on his platform Truth Social.
He followed that up with a photo showing part of the crowd in the shade and others in the sun, and the comment, “Look, we caught her with a fake ‘crowd.’ There was nobody there!”
But Trump’s claim, not the photo, is false, according to PolitiFact. There were thousands of supporters at that event, documented by news organizations and other images and videos of the rally. The photo shared is real.
The power is with the people.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 7, 2024
Tune in as Governor @Tim_Walz and I speak with Michigan voters about what’s at stake in this election https://t.co/DMgD9Vcp4s
“This is an actual photo of a 15,000-person crowd for Harris-Walz in Michigan,” Harris’ campaign wrote in an Aug. 11 X post.
University of California professor Hany Farid, an expert on digital forensics and image analysis, told PolitiFact he has “no doubt that the photo is real” after using two computer models to determine if the image was A.I. generated.
After Trump’s post, Michigan’s Democratic Party chair Lavora Barnes posted a photo of herself on X, addressing the crowd during the rally.
“I’m honored that whoever made the AI image of 15,000 excited Democrats welcoming @kamalaharris and @tim_walz to Detroit was kind enough to include me at the lectern. That AI crowd was really loud, my ears just stopped ringing from their imaginary cheering,” she wrote.
Crashed truck wasn’t promoting Trump
A photo recently shared on social media shows a large truck wedged under a bridge, with the words, “ALL ABOARD THE TRUMP TRAIN” written along the side of the vehicle.
This is an actual photo of a truck in distress, according to Reuters, but it has nothing to do with the former president.
The photo was taken in May 2015 in Mamaroneck, New York, a town on the state’s east coast. It shows a truck stuck under the overpass at the intersection of Mamaroneck Avenue and Halstead Street.
In the original photo, the text on the side of the truck ironically read, “On the road to success, there are no shortcuts.” The image was digitally altered to remove that phrase and add “ALL ABOARD THE TRUMP TRAIN.”
The unaltered photo appeared in an article headlined, “No Shortcuts Around Mamaroneck Avenue Underpass,” about trucks getting stuck at that location. That story ran in The Loop, a New York publication.
The article offered advice for the truck driver.
“Maybe they should read the side of their own truck,” it read.
Boy preaching on TV isn’t Vance
A video of a young boy screaming a Bible verse on the “Oprah Winfrey Show” was shared on social media as an old clip of the Republican nominee for vice president.
“JD Vance footage when he was a teenager,” reads the text accompanying the clip in an Aug. 8 Facebook post.
But that’s not Vance, according to Reuters.
The video, from a June 1988 episode of Winfrey’s show, features 10-year-old Duffey Strode from Marion, N.C., stating, “Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed.”
Strode had been suspended multiple times because he refused to stop preaching at school. Hundreds of people had signed a petition hoping to get the family to leave town.
Vance, who was born Aug. 2, 1984, was only 3 years old when the episode was filmed.
Facial recognition not for football fans
As the football preseason games began, the The National Football League, or NFL, increased its security.
“BIG BROTHER: The NFL announced this week that all 32 teams will be implementing facial recognition software to verify the identity of everyone in the stadium,” read a Facebook post that included a screenshot of an X post.
But that claim is inaccurate, according to USA Today. The security upgrade doesn’t apply to “everyone in the stadium.”
The new policy is only for those working the games, with access to high-security areas, such as the locker rooms, press box and playing field.
“ (The program is) only for individuals with working credentials — team/game-day personnel, vendors and media. (It) doesn’t apply to or affect fans,” NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy said in an Aug. 4 X post.
People with credentials are required to submit a photo of themselves which is compared to a facial scan at security checkpoints.
• Bob Oswald is a veteran Chicago-area journalist and former news editor of the Elgin Courier-News. Contact him at boboswald33@gmail.com.