After Zayn Malik, one of the members of the English-Irish boy band One Direction, left the band yesterday, CBS aired a montage of fans posting vines weeping about Malik’s departure. But as Mashable’s Tricia Gilbride pointed out, one of the vines was a fake.
Ben Berst, a self-described “comedian, entertainer, and YouTuber,” posted a vine of himself kissing a photograph of Malik and pretending to mourn the end of One Direction as we know it. CBS included it as part of a story about how fans across the world are posting vines bemoaning the loss of Malik, prompting Berst to post the CBS clip on YouTube, flag it on Reddit, and write, “I made a video pretending to care about One Direction. CBS aired it.”
The Reddit post generated more than 2,500 comments and the attention of Gilbride, who wrote, “Where are your fact checkers, CBS News?” But if you’d like to see the clip for yourself, you’re out of luck. As word of the mistake spread through the Internet, CBS cited a copyright claim and pulled the clip from YouTube.
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