No, CNN didn’t doctor these photos

Two images being shared on social media show a man lying face down on the ground with a police officer crouched over him. The man’s head is circled, and so are his legs. The pictures are authentic. But the description of them is not.

"CNN is at it again," the post says. "Putting a black guy’s head on a lily white dude to push an agenda." 

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) 

CNN published a similar image of the man and officer alongside a story about a stabbing attack at the Arndale Centre mall in Manchester, England, on Oct. 11, 2019. The caption says: "In this image taken from mobile phone footage, police arrest a man outside the Arndale Center."

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It seems the footage came from this Twitter account, which tweeted it at the Manchester Evening News that same day, saying it showed a "guy being held by police with a tazer outside the arndale."

The skin tones in the video are the same as the skin tones in the images being shared on Facebook.

Many news organizations replied to the tweet seeking permission to use it with their coverage of the stabbing attack, including CNN, NBC, The Independent, the European Broadcasting Union, BBC and RT, among others. In the United States, several networks covered the incident, including Fox News, which also published a similar image as appears in the Facebook post.  

We rate this Facebook post False.