Culture

CNN Reported That A Flag Covered In Dildos At A Pride Parade Was The ISIS Flag

Easy mistake to make.

by Alex McKinnon  29 June 2015

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CNN has a bit of a reputation for less-than-stellar news reportage; from the Boston bombings to calling our Prime Minister “John Abbot,” the network doesn’t quite have the fact-checking side of things down the way a live news channel ought to.

Hence how it ended up running a story over the weekend claiming that an ISIS flag was being proudly carried through an LGBT pride parade in London — a pretty serious claim to make, and one that a bunch of Australian news outlets wrongly asserted during the Martin Place siege. Fortunately, this time around it was nothing that serious — the flag’s ‘writing’, which CNN International reporter Lucy Pawle sombrely points out is not Arabic, is actually a motley collection of sex toys.

“I seem to be the only person who has spotted this!” Oh, Lucy. You have no idea how wrong you are.

In fairness, the thing is clearly made up to look like an ISIS flag on first impression, but asking the guy holding the damn thing would’ve cleared up that presumption mighty quick. “Excuse me, what language is that on your flag?” “The language of butts. Butt-language.”

Pawle, for her part, has valiantly conceded defeat and begun retweeting people letting her know the flag’s real significance.