Doctored videos exaggerate Fetterman speech issues in viral social media posts
Deceptively edited videos that have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on Twitter and TikTok exaggerate the speech issues that have plagued John Fetterm
Deceptively edited videos that have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on Twitter and TikTok exaggerate the speech issues that have plagued John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for Pennsylvania’s open U.S. Senate seat, after he had a stroke in May.
Despite policies on both platforms against political misinformation, the videos remained up for days and were shared by Fetterman’s critics.
The videos include slight edits, such as cutting out the sound of the audience to make it appear as if he had abruptly stopped speaking (some of the stops occurred when he was pausing during moments of applause and crowd reaction, according to unedited videos seen by NBC News). Other edits cut Fetterman off midsentence, to create the perception that what he was saying was nonsensical.
Joe Calvello, a spokesperson for Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, said in an email responding to the videos, “It is pretty sad and frankly desperate that Dr. Oz’s MAGA allies are deceptively editing videos of John speaking in order to mock him while he recovers from a stroke.”
Celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz is Fetterman’s Republican opponent.
Rating: 5