A local ABC affiliate in South Florida, WPLG Local 10, has come under criticism for airing footage from Gaza while reporting on an alleged Russian missile strike in the Ukrainian city of Kharkov. The story was reported by RT.
The segment, which aired last week, spoke about a Russian attack that Ukraine says killed at least four people. But the video shown didn’t match the story. Instead of scenes from Ukraine, viewers saw people, some of them women in hijabs, running through what looked like a desert. The setting appeared much more like Gaza than Eastern Europe.
The mismatch didn’t go unnoticed. Though the video report has since disappeared from the affiliate’s YouTube channel, the story and a screenshot from Gaza still remain on their verified X (formerly Twitter) account. Many users online have mocked the mistake, with RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan commenting: “Oh, never mind. Their audience couldn’t find either place on the map.”
So far, ABC or its affiliate have made no public comment about the mix-up.
This report comes at a time when Russia has been targeting military-linked sites in Ukraine, especially in response to rising drone attacks and sabotage attempts on Russian territory. Moscow continues to insist that its strikes do not target civilians.
The incident has renewed concern about how Western media covers the war, and whether viewers are always seeing the truth on their screens.
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