Fabricated image shows made-up Atlantic headline about a Pride parade

CLAIM: A headline published by The Atlantic reads, “At this weekend’s Pride parade a man exposed his genitals to my 6 year old. She was horrified. Am I raising a bigot?”

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The screenshot sharing the headline was fabricated. A spokesperson for The Atlantic confirmed to The Associated Press that the magazine never published an article with that headline.

THE FACTS: Social media users are sharing the purported screenshot, suggesting the magazine’s website published the headline amid Pride month.

“At this weekend’s Pride parade a man exposed his genitals to my 6 year old. She was horrified. Am I raising a bigot?” the headline in the image reads.

The screenshot, shared widely on Twitter Monday, features an image of a 2022 Pride parade in Indianapolis but includes no byline or publication date.

Searches on the magazine’s website show no record of The Atlantic publishing such an article and a spokesperson for the publication confirmed that the supposed screenshot was doctored.

“This image is crudely fabricated; it is not a screenshot of an actual Atlantic article. We have published no such thing,” Anna Bross said in an email. “We have reported this image as fake and as a trademark infringement.”

Bross emphasized that searching the outlet’s website is an easy way to verify if the magazine has published a certain article.

The AP has previously debunked several headlines falsely attributed to The Atlantic.
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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.