Claim: CNN has a news report with the headline “PHILIPPINES FACES UNIQUE CHALLENGE WITH COCAINE-ADDICTED PRESIDENT” referring to Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The said news report was from CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, host of the CNN show Anderson Cooper 360°.
Rating: FALSE
Why we fact-checked this: The photo, posted on August 25, has over 4,600 reactions, 748 comments, and 1,700 shares. The photo is also posted in numerous social media posts with several interactions, such as the following:
- An August 24 post in the Tiktok account “warlita.dela.cruz,” with 2,565 reactions, 395 comments, 207 bookmarks, 328 reactions, and around 34,400 video views as of writing;
- An August 24 post in the Facebook account of user Edwin Jamora, with 567 reactions, 64 comments, and 152 shares as of writing;
- An August 25 post in the Facebook group “TAPS Coalition (Official)” by user Lyra Isa Sandoval, with 204 reactions, 33 comments, and 204 shares as of writing (the post has since been deleted);
The facts: The photo with the headline about Marcos Jr.’s alleged drug use is fabricated.
The photo of the fabricated news report is similar to the thumbnail of a January 13, 2024 CNN video titled “Anderson Cooper guesses NFL teams based on their logos” which can be found in Cooper’s CNN profile page. The NFL is the National Football League, a professional league of teams playing American football in the United States.
In the actual clip, the CNN logo is on the lower-right portion of the video, not on the upper left like in the fabricated photo.
In the fake photo, the chyron, which shows the headline of the report, was also replaced with the claim to make it seem that Cooper was reporting about it instead of the original report about the NFL.
On the claimed drug use of Marcos Jr.: There are several public claims made about Marcos Jr.’s alleged drug use.
One was in the form of a video showing him allegedly using drugs, which Cabinet members have refuted on July 22 which is the date of this year’s State of the Nation Address (SONA), and which a deepfake detector has tagged as “suspicious.”
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Former president Rodrigo Duterte has also made multiple claims regarding Marcos’ alleged drug use; one example was in a November 18, 2021 speech where Duterte claimed that Marcos is a “weak leader” who is taking cocaine; another was in a January 28, 2024 protest rally of his supporters where he claimed that Marcos is a drug addict.
Past fact-checks: Rappler published a fact-check in 2019 about the claim that Anderson Cooper called former senator Mar Roxas and broadcaster and Roxas’ wife Korina Sanchez a “corrupt couple.” – Percival Bueser/Rappler.com
Percival Bueser is a graduate of Rappler’s fact-checking mentorship program.
Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.