PARIS (Reuters) - France’s envoy to the United States on Tuesday accused Moscow of spreading fake news after Russia’s Defence Ministry said a French frigate in the Mediterranean had launched missiles on Syria.
FILE PHOTO: French Ambassador to the U.N. Gerard Araud addresses the Security Council during a meeting about the situation in the Middle East, including Palestine, at United Nations headquarters in New York, July 22, 2014. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
The ministry initially said a Russian military plane had been shot down by Israeli warplanes and that Russian air control radar systems had detected rocket launches from the French frigate Auvergne.
The ministry later said the aircraft had been shot down by Syrian anti-aircraft systems in what President Vladimir Putin said was the result of tragic and chance circumstances.
“Russian fake news machine getting mad: accusing the French to have shot down a Russian plane (in fact victim of a Syrian « friend(ly) » fire),” France’s ambassador to Washington, Gerard Araud tweeted, in English.
French army spokesman Patrik Steiger denied that France had been involved in the incident or fired any missiles but several hours later Russian media continued to ask the question.
Quoting a military expert, Tass news agency said Paris was partly at fault after launching cruise missiles from the Auvergne.
France’s presidency, Foreign Ministry and Defence Ministry had yet to respond officially to the Russian assertions.
rocky_whoof on September 18th, 2018 at 21:31 UTC »
RTA. The French are talking about a specific incident last night where Israeli planes attacked a military base in northern Syria, and a Russian plane was shot down, killing 11 Russians.
The Russians first blamed Israel and France, but later changed their version and admitted the plane was shot down by Syrian AA fire that probably tried to hit the Israeli planes but seemed to have shot at everything in sight instead.
Israel admitted attacking the Syrian base, but denied hitting the Russian plane, claiming their planes were already back in Israeli airspace when the plane was shot down.
It's unclear if the French ship first accused by Russia was involved in any way.
TL;DR Israel bombed in Syria. Syria tried to shoot back but hit a Russian plane instead. Russia first blamed Israel and France but later had to admit that their Syrian allies just have bad aim.
TL;TL;DR Fun in the middle east!
hazbutler on September 18th, 2018 at 19:24 UTC »
Has anyone made an "Idiots guide to spotting fake news"? It should be mandatory viewing/reading.
HillbillyPartySloth on September 18th, 2018 at 16:02 UTC »
This is spot on. When you see reddit usernames like "AdjectiveNoun(PreeningAntelope, DedicatedHillbilly) with negative karma and a short life, that's what these are. A lot of them are 4m old lately, I assume they started them in preparation for the midterms.
It's not hard. If someone says something provacative or hard to believe, just check their history. Easy to distinguish fakes from actual users.
Edit: I have never had a post explode like this. I am simply asking all users to think critically and use the damn melon on your shoulders to decide what is real and fake for yourself.
For those of you commenting that my un is in fact the type I point out, YES. EXACTLY LIKE THAT. Use your brain! Decide for yourself if someone is worth listening to.
u/JollyGreenLittleGuy made a tool:
!FrequentedSubreddits
That is awesome for seeing at a glance someone's recent history and posting it. Thanks bud!
Update: the bot above seems to need more testing. I am gonna PM the author, see if he can work it out. In the meantime, the UN it posts under is
u/CommonSubredditBot
If you want to check of it worked.