His photo has been widely shared on social media claiming he is a 13-year old who died of coronavirus in Great Britain.
A post on Facebook claimed he was a "schoolboy...with no health conditions" who became "UK's youngest coronavirus victim."
The post went on to read: “Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab, from Brixton, sadly died without any family members close by due to the highly infectious nature of Covid-19.”
But it isn't true.
The same photograph of the same boy has circulated in news stories about deaths as far back as 2017.
According to AFP, the real boy was apparently named Conor Wilmont. His photo was first published on May 16, 2017 in an Irish Times report with the headline: “Conor Wilmot ‘found something on the internet that went wrong’."
That report said that the boy died at his own hand during a "choking game."
According to Politifact, a photo of the same boy was also used in a third news story on July 8, 2017. This time, the story claimed he was a 15-year-old boy from San Antonio, Texas who had hanged himself.
Uncorrected accounts still claiming the boy was the youngest coronavirus death in the UK-- three years after he reportedly actually died-- remain in publication.
Read more from AFP at the link below:
https://factcheck.afp.com/photo-has-circulated-reports-about-irish-teenager-who-died-2017
if this stupidity by the media continues along this trajectory-I'm not sure if they can be trusted to accurately report on as insignificant an event as the sunrise... they are somewhat lower than the lowest whale turd ever left by a fat sluggish sea floor snoozing whale... loathsome is a term that comes to mind.... quickly followed by despicable .... or maybe treacherous ... naw let's not over do it....
SEMPER FI ....
Mistakes like this have happened before. The wrong story is passed along and sources not checked. Especially now with media staff being cut by companies and many companies simply going out of business this is even a bigger problem.
My other concern is how people perceive news these days.I see your reaction as the classic " see I knew these bastards couldn't be trusted". It supports your narrative and your view is reinforced and you will probably end it there and move on to the next story that supports your view. If you read this story again who should you be mad at? Facebook? "news stories"? "Uncorrected accounts"? This article really is a fluff/ fear piece by Ms Atkisson. Her stories usually are better than this.
This seems like fair, constructive criticism. If it was a big-name news source that got caught, it would be different. But when it's small, independent news, hey, it's the internet.
We gotta hold all reporters to high standards when we value truthful, courageous reporting.
I love Sharyl.
I cannot believe how low the media has sunk. Whatever happened to objective reporting of the facts, proper fact-checking, and honest straightforward editing. It is little wonder why the media is held in such contempt. This level of incompetence should result in people being terminated.
Hey Sharyl,, in case you haven't noticed, people are misinterpreting your article here. The only way to understand this piece is to click on the Politifact link but people will not take the time to do that so I'm going to copy and paste it here. PEOPLE: It was NOT mainstream media who is faking this article about the boy.
"This Facebook post does not show that the media is falsely suggesting that the same boy had died of the coronavirus in three different countries.
Rather, it shows that someone used doctored images of a child who reportedly killed himself to falsely suggest a media conspiracy over COVID-19.
You can Google the kid's name and find that the BBC still has this story up. The issue is the sloppy reporting that fuels fear. Whether or not that's what intended is unknowable.
I agree and have read the article. I stand by my statement of fear/fluff and the rest of what I said regarding people saying "see fake news". And its from a FB post? That just makes it worse on all points really. How about the title read FAKE FACEBOOK POST SHOWS BOY WHO DIED OF COVID 19 DIED IN 2017 BY SUICIDE. There now we either have that in our brains OR this story never is on this site.
The commenter above is incorrect. This is not a story about "the media". This is a story about an unnamed guy on Facebook posting the wrong picture next to a news piece that this article does not challenge. "A post on Facebook claimed". And the post is being "widely shared on social media". How widely? The article doesn't say.
Google the kid's name. You'll find BBC and several other news sources still have this misinformation up.
Most investigative journalists fail in the "critical thinking" category. They are too lazy to dig into the facts concerning a hot story such as the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
For example; New York State is the epicenter for the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak across the nation. Now look at the number of reported cases of Influenza Type A or Type B for weeks 13 and 14 of the current 2019 - 2020 flu season versus the 2016 - 2017, 2017 - 2018, and 2018 - 2019 flu seasons.
See: https://nyshc.health.ny.gov/web/nyapd/new-york-state-flu-tracker .
Select "Compare With Previous Seasons."
Notice that in the prior flu season years, the numbers for weeks 13 and 14 are all well over 2,000 reported cases and increase each season. But for this year, the numbers are well under 1,000 reported cases of flu. That anomaly should be investigated and it could be the normal count of reported flu cases for those weeks are being diverted to raise the count of COVID-19 cases to keep the people in a state of anxiety and fear.
Now look at the COVID-19 tracker web site.
See: https://covid19tracker.health.ny.gov/views/NYS-COVID19-Tracker/NYSDOHCOVID-19Tracker-Map?%3Aembed=yes&%3Atoolbar=no&%3Atabs=n
We see the daily and cumulative number of people tested and those that tested positive. But we don't know how many were hospitalized. Without the number who are hospitalized under observation or receiving acute care (life support on a ventilator), the public is led to believe the positively tested patient will advance to end stage life support and that is an exaggeration due to the fact that most people recover from the disease with palliative care at home.
Other CV related fakery:
CT governor says baby's death was from covid, when in fact it was a tragic accident. Candace Ownens calls him out and demands he be prosecuted:
https://www.dailywire.com/news/scum-behavior-candace-owens-unloads-on-governor-for-tweeting-newborns-death-was-linked-to-covid-19
CBS --your old stomping grounds!--admits to using fake Italian footage in CV story:
https://nypost.com/2020/04/01/cbs-admits-to-using-footage-from-italy-in-report-about-nyc/
and--yep--another fake from CBS:
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2020/04/08/cbs-news-story-about-a-nurse-quitting-over-lack-of-medical-masks-is-a-fake-news-n2566434
these stories are relatively small; there is much, much more fakery to be revealed in the days, weeks and months to come.