Fact Check-Altered video purports to show MSNBC host breaking down over Musk meme
By Reuters Fact Check
A video from 2018 of MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow has been altered to portray her as breaking down over a meme shared this month by Elon Musk suggesting he is tempted to buy the cable network.
The original clip dates to 2018, when Maddow reacted on air to a news story about migrant babies and young children being separated from their parents and detained in shelters.
“I can confirm that the video that is circulating has been manufactured and is fake,” an MSNBC network spokesperson said in an email.
Posts sharing the altered clip online said: "Rachel Maddow MELTS DOWN over Elon Musk posting memes about buying MSNBC".
Comcast said on Nov. 20 it plans to spin off MSNBC and other NBCUniversal cable TV networks.
The altered video shows Maddow struggling to get through a news segment and contains an added news chyron that reads, “ELON MUSK POSTS DANGEROUS MEME.”
After the meme is shown in the altered clip, Maddow says in the original audio, “I think I’m going to have to hand this off. Sorry,” as she ended the segment.
The meme image included in the altered video stems from a Nov. 24 post on X by Musk that depicts him as a praying monk who is labeled, “Elon Musk trying not to buy,” and a woman on hands and knees with the MSNBC logo on her body. The post was captioned, “And lead us not into temptation.”
On June 19, 2018, Maddow had struggled to read an Associated Press story about children being separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border and placed in “tender-age” shelters during the first Trump administration.
A clip was published on YouTube by Guardian News on June 20, 2018, titled, “Rachel Maddow breaks down during report on ‘tender age’ shelters.”
The Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy of separating children from their parents at the border that began in May 2018 drew backlash and political pressure in the following months. A federal judge on June 26, 2018, ordered the government to stop separating new arrivals and reunite families that had already been separated.
A comparison of screenshots taken from the news segment and the social media video shows the original chyron read, “AP: YOUNGEST SEPARATED KIDS SENT TO TEXAS ‘TENDER AGE’ SHELTERS” and the meme shared by Musk in 2024 was not visible in the 2018 segment.
On June 19, 2018, Maddow apologized after the segment in a thread on the platform formerly known as Twitter and shared a link to the story she had been trying to read. The Associated Press also reported on Maddow “breaking down” while trying to read its story.
VERDICT
Altered. A 2018 video of MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow has been altered to portray her as breaking down in response to a meme shared by Elon Musk about buying the network.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work.
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