Media Bias

[Giantone]

Fact check: Social media post shows fabricated story about Biden and the economy
Ana Faguy, USA TODAY
Mon, August 8, 2022 at 12:01 PM

https://news.yahoo.com/fact-check-so...160104407.html

The claim: Image shows headline of story in The Atlantic praising Biden for having the courage to shrink the economy
In July, the Commerce Department reported the economy shrank for a second straight quarter, stoking recession worries. President Joe Biden has rejected that description and has taken steps to strengthen the economy.

Nevertheless, a July 30 Facebook post has helped spread the false notion that Biden has purposefully hurt the economy and wants to see it contract. It shows an image of fabricated headlines from a nonexistent article by The Atlantic. The post was shared more than 100 times in four days.

The headline of the purported story reads, "The Quiet Courage of Biden's Negative Growth Economy."

The supposed subheadline reads: "In an era of unchecked economic prosperity, one man had the moxie to pump the brakes - to save us from ourselves."

But a spokesperson for The Atlantic told USA TODAY the article and the headlines in the image are fabricated.

The Atlantic headline is not real
The image in the social media post does not depict real headlines, and The Atlantic never wrote such a story, Anna Bross, a spokesperson for The Atlantic said.

"We have reported this as fake and as a trademark infringement," Bross told USA TODAY in an email.

The story was not published on The Atlantic's website and does not appear on The Atlantic's Twitter account.