Since the withdrawal of United States military forces and subsequent surrender of the Afghan military, the Taliban has achieved significant victories throughout Afghanistan. Vikas Khanchandani, CEO of ARG (owner of Republic TV) was arrested in December 2020 for allegedly rigging ratings in order to charge advertisers more. Republic TV meanwhile has a sordid history of far right-wing reporting and supporting India's prime minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist policies, according to Aljazeera. The claim was originally recognized as fraudulent by Boom, a group that calls itself India's 'first and leading fact checking website and initiative,' and is a member of the Poynter Institute's International Fact-Checking Network initiative. In Compared Comparison's YouTube video, zoomed-in shots of the attacking aircraft do look moderately convincing, at least until the video zooms out to show the digital anti-air vehicle firing and later blowing up in a not-so-realistic fashion.ĭuring Republic TV's broadcast, the anchor can be heard repeating the claim that the Pakistani airforce performed an airstrike in Panjshir.
It's easy to see how the deceptive edit was made.
