CNN Altered a Photo of Oregon Shooter Chris Harper-Mercer-Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
CNN altered a photo of Oregon community college shooter Chris Harper-Mercer to make him appear white instead of African-American.
The Truth:
Reports that CNN altered a photo of Oregon community college shooter Chris Harper-Mercer to “vilify” white people are false.
Shortly after the mass at Umpqua Community College in Oregon, a number of conservative websites reported that CNN had altered a photo of Chris Harper-Mercer in an effort to make him appear to be a white man instead of a black man.
A report that appeared at the Conservative Tree House website showed two images of Chris Harper-Mercer side-by-side in which he had very different skin tones:
A screen grab that supposedly showed an altered picture of Chris Harper-Mercer on a CNN broadcast added even more fuel to the rumor:
As it turns out, that photo of a lighter-looking Chris Harper-Mercer never appeared in the CNN’s interview of the shooter’s father. It was added to a screen grab from the interview to make it appear CNN had altered the photo.
Also, at the time that report had gone viral, a CNN senior media correspondent Brian Stelter dispelled the rumor by pointing out that the network hadn’t shown any images of Chris Harper-Mercer:
A search of CNN’s coverage of the Oregon community college shooting confirms Stelter’s claim that the network hadn’t broadcast a picture of the killer when the rumor went viral.