Fake news? Viral video raises questions for global mainstream media

A video circulating on social media has raised questions over the authenticity and reliability of news coverage by the Western mainstream media companies.

Created by right-wing American radio show and news website Infowars, the video claims that leading news media outlets in the US — including CNN and the New York Times — runs 'fake news reports' and 'molds' its coverage to shape Western policy on leading global issues such as conflicts in the Middle East or US ties with Russia.

In the video, the hosts on the show analyse footage from Iraq, Syria, and Ukraine aired by mainstream Western media, claiming they 'faked it' for their own agendas.

Showing footage of a boy sitting in an ambulance after being injured in a bombing in Aleppo, the show's hosts draw attention to the child touching and scratching what appears to be an open wound without any reaction.

Infowars claims the video, which went viral on social media and was covered by leading global news media, was 'set up' as the young child could not sit patiently without eliciting any reaction of pain if he was badly injured.

The hosts continue by showing footage from 2016 of what they call a 'fake car bomb attack' in Iraq. In the video, a man can be seen walking away from a car after appearing to plant a bomb in the vehicle before it blows up. The video goes on to show people running into the deserted street and acting as if they were injured by the shrapnel from the bomb.

It was unclear which news media company aired the footage shown by Infowars.

The Infowars video also refers to images published in a 2014 front-page report by the New York Times purporting to show the involvement of Russian forces in protests in east Ukraine. The images were later reported to have been doctored. Infowars claimed NYT published the images to falsely prove the existence of an armed Russian intervention in Ukraine.

"We can't trust [the mainstream media] and thats what makes us so angry that they use us and they use these people and they lie to us so much," says one of the hosts. "Our first instinct is to say: Wow! what's the setup here? Who wants to take us to war now?"

Geo News could not independently verify the authenticity of the videos or the claims made by Infowars.

Infowars holds a controversial reputation in the United States. US mainstream media describes the owner Alex Jones as a conspiracy theorist and his blog Infowars as a 'fake news website'.

Last month, Jones issued an apology his media company's role in spreading false news that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were involved in a child sex trafficking ring being run out of a pizzeria in Washington DC.