No American Flags Displayed at Democratic National Convention-Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
No American flags could be spotted at the Democratic National Convention, leading to rumors that the American flags had been banned at the event.
The Truth:
Rumors that American flags were banned at the Democratic National Convention, or that no flags could be spotted in pictures of the event, are false.
The backdrop of the stage at the DNC is a number of large LED screens that toggle between various images, including the American flag. This photo of the DNC stage setup shows images of the American flag appearing on each of the screens:
Besides that, a picture of Meryl Streep delivering a speech during the second day of the convention disproves rumors that the flags were missing from the stage, and that attendees were banned from wearing American flag clothes:
Rumors that the American flag had been banned from the DNC started with conservative websites like Conservative Outfitters and Daily Caller with stories appearing under headlines like, “No Visible American Flags Present at the Democrat Convention.”
These stories used images of the stage at times when no American flags were pictured on the LED screens to make that point. In reality, it’s just as easy to find examples of a flag-free stage at the Republican National Convention. This screen grab of Rudy Giuliani’s speech is an example of that:
So, rumors that the American flag was banned from the DNC, or that there were “no visible American flags present,” are false.