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Friday, Aug. 20, 2021

Was a CNN reporter from the US named Bernie Gores executed by the Taliban in Kabul, Afghanistan?

Christiana Dillard, Lead Stories

no

"Bernie Gores" is not a real CNN reporter, and the Twitter accounts that propagated the false claim are all fake news accounts.

The claim originally appeared in tweets published on August 16, 2021, from three subsequently suspended Twitter accounts. The tweets continued to spread on Twitter and Facebook through individual posts and shares after the originating accounts were suspended.

According to CNN's list of anchors, reporters and staff, there was no journalist at CNN named "Bernie Gores" when the posts appeared.

Lead Stories determined that the picture of a smiling man in tweets and Facebook posts about "Bernie Gores" was a photo of video game streamer Jordie Jordan.

Jordan's image was used in another false claim in August 2020 that stated that he was a missing person, again named Bernie Gores, who was possibly killed in a Beirut, Lebanon, explosion.

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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.

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Lead Stories is a fact checking and debunking website at the intersection of big data and journalism that launched in 2015. It scouts for trending stories, images, videos and posts that contain false information in order to fact check them as quickly as possible. It actively monitors the fake-news ecosystem and doesn’t wait for reader tips or reports before getting started on a story.

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