A spoof video shared on a comedian’s Twitter page has journeyed from joke to scandal as some people sharing and seeing it online appear to believe it’s authentic.
It’s not.
But here’s the premise: an NBC producer is caught on a hot mic saying: “We just spoke to a chief medical examiner. They said 60% of people in this stadium will be dead within 10 days. They’re thinking of using the swimming pool as a mass grave. Did you know that? Yeah they’re just going to start burning bodies.”
A post sharing the video was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) That video originated on TikTok.
“This is obviously not authentic,” a spokesperson for NBC Sports told PolitiFact. NBC is broadcasting the Olympics in the United States.
Comedian Tim Dillon shared the video on his Twitter account on July 23, writing, “Man this is crazy. NBC employee fired after hot mic incident at Olympics.”
Some users are clearly in on the joke, like those commenting on a post in a forum that describes the video as the “greatest hot mic moment ever.”
But we rate claims that it’s real False.
This fact check was originally published by PolitiFact, which is part of the Poynter Institute. It is republished here with permission. See the sources for this fact check here and more of PolitiFact’s fact checks here.
