Albanian-language news portals published an article yesterday (September 22) claiming that a digital billboard in New York City displayed the phrase "Glory to urine" instead of "Glory to Ukraine."
Fact checker from AFP (see here) after verifying the facts, have confirmed that the video material presented with the sentence "Glory to urine" is edited and as such was not shown on one of the screens in New York.
The article from Albanian-language portals was based on a post from the “Sprinter” account on the social media X (formerly Twitter). (see here)
Link to the article published on the portals "Noa.al" and "Epokaere.com":
https://noa.al/lajmi/2023/09/2403541.html
Erin Watkins, general counsel for Big Outdoor, the company that owns and operates the billboard in question, spoke to the French international news agency (AFP) saying that "the images are 100 percent fake."
"We operate the sign shown in the video and have confirmed that the copy shown in the photos and videos circulating online did not work on the sign," Watkins told AFP in an email. (see here)
In response to the viral video, NBC News reporter Ben Collins and others, via social media X, posted videos and photos from the same street corner on September 21, which appear to show other billboard ads. (here and here)
The edited video material shows that the Fox News Digital television logo has been added, but this medium has since said that they have not posted any such footage.
"Fox News Digital did not publish this video," a spokesperson for the media outlet told AFP via email.
Analyze:
Several Albanian-language news portals have fallen prey to an edited video material that appears to be displayed on a billboard in New York, which reads Glory to Urine instead of Glory to Ukraine.
This was confirmed after fact-checking by AFP, who found that such a sentence was not displayed on the billboard and that this video was edited. This article published by Albanian-language portals is considered unverified content.
Reasoning:
The “Unverified” rating is given to those media reports that do not provide sufficient information to confirm the claims made in the report, and which have not been able to confirm the same due to the lack or non-possession of reliable sources.