Did DirecTV pull the plug on all Olympic broadcast contracts indefinitely? Does the controversial opening ceremony precipitate the move? What will be the ramifications of such a move? Read on to know more about this story.
The genesis of this story can be traced to a meme posted on the Facebook account of a site known as “America’s Last Line of Defense” (ALLOD).
The post claimed that DirecTV had indefinitely canceled all broadcasting contracts for the Olympic Games.
The post was accompanied by a caption which read:
“DirecTV CEO Joe Barron says the company will never show another Olympic Games—summer or winter—unless the International Olympic Committee makes certain guarantees.”
The tweet, prominently displaying the text “DirecTV cancels all Olympic broadcast contracts indefinitely,” also featured a screen capture from the tableau in the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, which showed an almost nude French singer Philippe Katerine, wearing a blue dress and what many claimed was a depiction of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting “The Last Supper.”
However, the IOC and the creators of the tableau in the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics have repeatedly clarified that it depicted the Greek God Dionysus, the god of wine and pleasure, and the father of Sequana, the goddess of the River Seine.
Nevertheless, many took the meme seriously and applauded the broadcaster for taking this step.
One user commented:
“Thank you, DirecTV! Finally a company with common sense!”
However, many sane viewers took to social media to debunk this fake news, and one user noted:
“I have DIRECTV and have been watching the Olympics every night. This is BS.”
Many skeptics, who even made a Google search with terms like “DirecTV,” “Olympic,” and “canceled,” yielded no results indicating that DirecTV had taken such action or made any such statement.
Another glaring inaccuracy in the meme is the fact that the CEO of DirecTV is Bill Morrow, not “Joe Barron,” as mentioned in the post.
Delving deeper, it became evident that this was fake news propagated by ALLOD, a network of social media accounts and websites that produce content they describe as satirical.
In fact, the “About Me” page of the site mentions that “Nothing on this page is real.”
The meme also featured a “satire” badge in the bottom left corner, but it escaped the attention of many netizens.
Also Read: FACT-CHECK: Did Hobby Lobby pull ads from the Paris Olympics 2024? Exploring Viral Rumor
