For 2nd Time, Russia Uses Video Game Footage for Syria

Channel One admits the error about scene from first-person-shooter game
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 27, 2018 10:45 AM CST
Russia Airs Video Game Clip as Syria Footage. Again
Plumes of smoke rise in Syria, the result of a real airstrike, not one from a video game.   (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Sharp-eyed viewers of a Russian media report on the Syrian war spotted a gaffe—Channel One mixed in an image from a video game with actual war footage. You can see for yourself at the 4:59 mark of this YouTube video, per Popular Mechanics. It seems an editor at the Russian outlet grabbed a clip from the first-person-shooter game Arma 3, made by Bohemia Interactive, reports the BBC. It didn't take long for users of Russia's version of Reddit, Pikabu, to call out the mistake, and the channel offered a mea culpa.

"The use of this frame was a mistake by the video editing director, who took it from the archive," says a Channel One statement. One reason the gaffe is drawing attention is that it comes about three months after the Russian Defense Ministry released "irrefutable proof" that the US was providing assistance to the Islamic State. The only problem was some of that imagery came from the game AC-130 Gunship Simulator: Special Ops Squadron. (More Russia stories.)

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