New York Times front page altered to claim it 'praised Chinese singer'

Published on October 12, 2024 at 09:14
3 min read
By Tommy WANG, AFP Hong Kong

A doctored New York Times front page has circulated in social media posts that falsely claimed the paper heaped praise on Chinese singer Dao Lang after his comeback concert was reportedly watched by over 50 million people in August 2024. But the paper did not publish reports about the singer or his concert in September, and the altered image was in fact edited from a 2003 front page.

"Dao Lang's Online Concert was given high praise by the New York Times on September 3! He is one of China's outstanding musicians!" read a Facebook post shared on September 3, 2024.

The post also included a video that displayed a purported New York Times front page featuring a picture of Dao Lang, a Chinese singer-songwriter whose online concert on August 30 was reportedly viewed by 53 million people (archived link).

The rest of the 30-second clip featured footage of Dao thanking people for their support.

Screenshot of the Facebook post, captured on October 10, 2024

Dao debuted in 2001 but quit to focus on his family in 2013, according to Hong Kong newspaper the South China Morning Post.

He returned in July 2023 with a new album featuring a song that fans speculated was a criticism of China's entertainment industry, the SCMP report said.

The purported New York Times front page was also shared alongside similar claims across X, WeChat, and news aggregator sites Netease and Sohu.

But keyword searches using text from the other headlines on the page, such as "Lowering Expectations" and "Iraq warns of a fierce clash" led to the genuine New York Times front page that was published on March 24, 2003 (archived link).

The original headline reads "Allies and Iraqis battle on 2 fronts; 20 Americans dead or missing, 50 hurt" and features a photo of soldiers in a desert.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the altered front page shared on social media (left) and the original New York Times front page published in 2003 (right), with similarities highlighted by AFP:

Screenshot comparison of the altered front page (left) and the original New York Times front page (right) with similarities highlighted by AFP

An advanced search on the New York Times website using Google did not find any reports about Dao or his concert between August 1 and September 30, 2024 (archived link).

Further reverse image searches found the picture used on the altered front page is a screenshot of Dao Lang's August 30 online concert (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the altered front page (left) and the corresponding image of Dao Lang taken from his concert live stream (right):

Screenshot comparison of the altered front page (left) and the corresponding image of Dao Lang taken from his concert live stream (right)

Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.

E-mail

New York Times front page altered to claim it 'praised Chinese singer'

YouTube