Facebook post shares misleadingly edited version of CNN report on 9/11

As a CNN reporter stood in front of the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, to give his live report, smoke billowed from the building behind him and grim images showed the aftermath of the attack that killed more than 180 people.

Now, 21 years later, social media users are sharing a misleadingly edited version of that news report to bolster the conspiracy theory that a plane never struck the building. 

A Sept. 12 Instagram post that shared the CNN video shows Jamie McIntyre, who was then the network's military affairs correspondent, saying he had walked up to the Pentagon building to get a closer look at the "huge, gaping hole." 

In the Instagram clip, McIntyre then says, "From my close-up inspection, there’s no evidence of a plane having crashed anywhere near the Pentagon." He also says there are no large sections of the airplane body anywhere nearby. 

The Instagram post’s caption says, "Watch the fact checkers say this is false and misleading when in fact every article or photo will show you ZERO debris at the alleged crash site at the Pentagon." Another Instagram user also shared the same clip.

The posts were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

But the clip shared on Instagram was edited to truncate McIntyre’s remarks. In the original broadcast, just before the 5:41 mark, the anchor says eyewitnesses said it appeared that Boeing 757 might have landed short of the Pentagon, and she asked McIntyre how much of the plane struck the building.

McIntyre answered, "It might have appeared that way. But from my close-up inspection, there’s no evidence of a plane having crashed anywhere near the Pentagon. The only site is the actual site of the building that’s crashed in." 

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He had also noted earlier in the broadcast that he saw a piece of 3-foot-long metal, painted green and red, and a large piece of shattered glass that appeared to be the cockpit windshield.

We also fact-checked a claim that there was no debris at the Pentagon crash site and rated it Pants on Fire! 

McIntyre addressed the conspiracy himself in a 2015 video report for Al Jazeera.

"Little did I know as I was doing this live report … that I would fuel the doubts of so-called 9/11 truthers, who believe the attack was an inside job," he said.
 

An Instagram post says a CNN report on 9/11 proved that a plane never hit the Pentagon.

The clip was misleadingly edited and the reporter’s words were taken out of context. The original broadcast makes it clear that the reporter said a plane had crashed into the building and that he saw parts of the airplane wreckage on-site. 

We rate this claim False.