Many social media users were taken in by a TIME magazine cover that proclaimed the US President to be 'Liar in Chief'.
With the American newsmagazine putting out a number of bold covers on Donald Trump over the past few months, the recent cover was not surprising.
Except, this cover did not actually come from TIME and can be put under the label ‘fake news’.
Boom website, which describes itself as 'India's first fact checking website', claims that the fake image was retweeted by "journalists, authors, politicians".
When asked about the cover, a TIME spokesperson - who debunked the cover - was quoted by Boom as saying:
That is a fake cover - could you please write in any post/social media you are doing that a spokesperson confirmed that TIME did not publish the Liar in Chief cover.TIME Spokesperson
Having a questionable design, not in line with the other authentic TIME covers, the cover has a picture of Donald Trump accompanied by a larger, looming one of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The tagline accompanying the pictures says: "Americans begin facing the task of living under the Liar in Chief".
In India too, the cover image caused some ripples, and was written about by Janta Ka Reporter, which later issued a statement saying:
Since there have been too many questions raised on the authenticity of the TIME’s cover page calling Trump ‘liar in chief’, we’ve decided to withdraw our original report until we hear from the editorial staff of the magazine confirming its authenticity.Janta Ka Reporter statement
Notably, the magazine has shared all of its covers for 2017 on its website. And the 'Liar in chief' cover is certainly not there. Nevertheless, The latest one, dated 19 June, is concerned with Trump with its tagline saying, ‘The Swamp Hotel: How Trump DC outpost became a dealmaker's paradise for diplomats, lobbyists and insiders’.
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