Fact check: Image of a football stadium was altered to include anti-Biden message
Nayeli LomeliThe claim: Marching band spells out vulgarity toward Biden
A Facebook post with more than 38,000 shares appears to show a marching band at a football stadium spelling out a vulgar message directed toward President Joe Biden.
The image shows a football field on which a marching band appears to be spelling out a vulgarity directed toward Biden.
"Relentless lol," reads the caption of the Oct. 16 post.
Within three days the post received more than 72,000 likes. In the comments, some users questioned the authenticity of the image, while others believed it was a genuine photo.
"Did this really happen and what game was it?" one commenter asked.
"Great Marching Band!!!" another wrote.
Similar versions of this claim accumulated thousands of shares on Facebook, and it made the rounds on other social media platforms as well.
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But the image has been altered. It was digitally manipulated to include the anti-Biden message.
USA TODAY reached out to the user of the Oct. 16 post for comment.
Image has been altered
The original image is of the Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas. It serves as the site for the annual Red River Showdown football game between the University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma.
The image, with a higher resolution, can be found online in a 2018 article by VisitDallas, an independent, non-profit organization that promotes Dallas. It shows a wider view of the stadium with the words "Texas" running across the left end zone and "Oklahoma" on the right end zone. There is no band spelling out a message on the field in the photo.The original
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Our rating: Altered
Based on our research, we rate ALTERED an image that shows a marching band spelling out a vulgarity toward Biden. The image, without any message spelled out by the band, appeared in a 2018 article, years before Biden became president.
Our fact-check sources:
- VisitDallas, Aug, 29, 2018, 5 CAN'T-MISS FOOTBALL MATCHUPS THIS FALL
- Fair Park, accessed Oct. 19, COTTON BOWL® STADIUM
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Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.
