“#BREAKING: #CNN reporter ‘Bernie Gores’ was executed by #Taliban forces in #Kabul,” stated a tweet from the CNN Afghanistan account. We are currently negotiating with US officials to allow more journalists to leave #Afghanistan (sic). Our thoughts and prayers are with Bernie’s family.”
There were other photos of the same person from a Twitter account called BBC Afghanistan with the handle @BBCAfghanNews, as well as a tweet with similar language.
Neither account, however, appears to be verified in these Twitter screenshots, and both have been suspended (here).
“This is a fictional story and a false post,” Matt Dornic, CNN’s director of strategic communications, told Reuters by email.
Fact checkers Snopes and PolitiFact refute this claim (here) and (here), noting that photos of Jordan continued to circulate after the August 2020 Beirut bombing.
According to CNN (here) and Reuters (here), journalists in the region remain at risk.
Incorrect. The story of CNN reporter Bernie Gores’ execution by the Taliban in Kabul is a fabrication.
Bernie Gores has died and his obituary has been published. Is he actually dead? What went wrong?
