Satire About Man Using Nuclear Bomb to Power His House Shared as Real
On performing a search on CNN's website, we did not find any such article published with the same headline.
Fact Check | The claim of a man being arrested for using a nuke to power is home is false.
(Photo: Altered by The Quint)
A screenshot of an article purportedly from Cable News Network (CNN), which mentions that a Florida man was arrested for using a nuclear bomb to power, is going viral on the internet.
It also has a collage of two photographs - the first one is a mugshot of a man, and the second shows a scuba diver.
The second picture is from an article published in the German news organisation Deutsche Welle (DW) which talked about how millions of tons of firebombs and poisonous gases can be found in the waters off the coast of Germany.
The collage was created as a meme, and the headline was taken from a satire website, which mentions that the information on it is for "entertainment purposes only".
CLAIM
The claim suggests that a man was arrested in Florida for using a nuclear bomb to power his home for more than 27 years.
It was shared with a caption that said, "Free this man".
An archive of the post can be found here.
What About the Article?
A closer look at the screenshot revealed that the article was attributed to CNN.
The article was attributed to CNN.
On searching for the headline on the website of the media organisation, we did not find any such published article.
When we searched for the headline, we did not come across any such article.
Image 1: Mugshot of the Man
We isolated the first image and then performed a reverse image search on it using the Google search engine.
This led us to a report published in Times Union on 12 October 2016. It identified the man as Todd M Warnken, a 55-year-old Trump supporter who allegedly threatened a black woman and used racial slurs.
The police later arrested the man.
A different report published in The Guardian with the headline, "Violence in the name of Trump" also carried the mugshot of the man.
The article had the list of Trump supporters who committed acts of violence.
Image 2: Scuba Driver
We performed a reverse image search on the second image and supplemented it with keywords such as "diver finds nuke".
We came across an article published by DW in 2014, which had the same picture.
The article was published in 2014.
It mentioned that millions of tons of fire bombs and poisonous gases are still rotting in the water off the coast of Gemany coast.
These bombs are still rotting beneath the water, and around 65 bombs are discovered on the coastline every year.
What About the Man Powering His Home With a Nuclear Bomb?
That was a piece of satire published on the website of World News Daily Report with the headline, "GEORGIA: AMATEUR DIVERS FIND LONG-LOST NUCLEAR WARHEAD".
The article carried the image of the Scuba driver.
The website had a disclaimer that said the articles posted on the website are satirical and fictional in nature.
The disclaimer mentions the article published on the website are satirical and fictional.
The headline was picked from here, and then a collage of two unrelated photos was used to create the viral post. However, users started sharing the post as a real incident.
The website also regularly posts satirical articles created for "entertainment purposes only".
Evidently, a satirical article about a man in Florida using a nuclear bomb to generate electricity for his house is being falsely shared on the internet.
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