By Juliet Buna
The forwarded Whatsapp message has a caption of, “Omo, let any Nigerian journalist try this with Remi Tinubu. A full division of Nigerian army, with navy, Airforce, NDLEA, EFCC, DSS, POLICE, CIVIL DEFENCE, even Vigilante, will be waiting to arrest him and shut down the studio immediately he finishes the program, that is if they will even allow him to finish and not cut him off mid air!!!”
While on X, Nkirukamma (@SabinaNkiru) posted the video with the caption” If you think Rufai of Arise News is doing too much then you have to listen to this.” Nkirukamma’s post has over 145,000 posts and over 1,400 reposts.
Commenting on the post, Alexfield (@alex2j2) said “Considering the environment, this guy cannot lace Rufai’s shoe. Doing the kind of Journalism Rufai does in Nigeria is a recipe for disaster. This guy won’t be this bold in Nigeria, Africa.”
Another X user, Opinionated-Freak, (@Dat_igbo_ghuy) said, “HahAhahahaha any journalist that does this on air in Naija, we all know the FG would use all it’s might to dismantle that media house with concocted accusations and the journalist will somehow disappear.
Nigerian netizens are shocked by the presenter’s boldness, comparing it to the more restrictive environment in Nigeria.
They note that a similar incident in Nigeria would result in severe consequences for the journalist and media house, including arrest, shutdown, and possible disappearance. But, N-VA’s attention is drawn to the context of the video to verify if the presenter talked back to the wife of the most powerful person in the free world.
VERIFICATION
The video which was less than 2 minutes by a few seconds has since gone viral on X and WhatsApp showed Dr. Jill Biden sitting in a bright pink suit with the popular US talk show, ‘The View’ logo showing underneath her frame (the left side) with the caption, “FIRST LADY DR. JILL BIDEN TALKS ABOUT THE 2024 RACE” beside the logo, underneath it, “GUEST | DAMON IMANI,” while ‘Hot Topics’ was visibly displayed on the right side.
Dr. Biden was captured in the video saying: “This election is not about age but it’s about character, so you have two choices, you have my husband Joe who you all know, who has Integrity, he’s strong, he’s steady, he’s a leader, he’s smart, he’s energetic or you have chaos and my husband’s and you’re going to see how smart he is and the experience he has I believe that Americans are going to choose good over evil.”
The presenter swiftly replied: “Uhnn…Okay, so madam first lady respectfully it’s very bold of you to sit here and talk about Good and Evil given your husband has demonized half of the country and continues to do so while Prosecuting his political opponent now Joe has been in politics for 48 years including his presidency yet you have nothing to show for, otherwise you would have spend your time here talking about his actual accomplishments, instead of saying empty words and finally I agree this election is not about age, it is about being able to walk without getting lost, it is about being able to find your way off a stage, it is about being able to go up and down the stairs without falling, it is about being able to finish a sentence all of which Joe is not able to do on daily basis.”
“I have seen it, people out there have seen it, even Whoopi has seen it, I wish you were honest about it and most importantly you have seen it. We all know Joe is not well, we all know he’s not in control and listen I’m not a fan of his but I would say you should be ashamed of yourself for putting him through this and letting his handlers abuse him like a puppet, shame on you!”
To verify if this interview took place and this exchange happened, N-VA did a keyword search on Google but did not find any reputable media coverage on the interview with Dr. Biden. We went further to use Deepware.ai, an app that allows users to analyse potential deep fake videos or assess specific aspects of visual and audio communication by just inputting links. The results from Deepware.ai found that the video is not a deep fake.
For further clarification, the researcher put in “GUEST | DAMON IMANI” in Google search engine. The results found images and videos similar to the presenter and discovered his name is Damon Imani, as shown in the TV caption.
An extended search for Imani revealed that he is an Iranian-born producer and artist who relocated to Denmark in 2008, is known for creating parody content on various topics, including politics and sharing on social media. Among the search results is a YouTube channel titled ‘Catch Up,’ with over 71,000 subscribers that posts saucy news, culture, memes, viral videos, and commentary. This channel had numerous videos featuring Imani dishing out political commentaries to popular personalities and the videos on the channel included the one with the first lady.
According to the extended caption on the video, it was revealed that the video has “Altered or synthetic content” and “Sound or visuals were significantly edited or digitally generated.”
Further findings revealed the original video was filmed when Dr. Biden was hosted on “The View” by Whoopi Goldberg and her TV show co-hosts. The First Lady was on the show to promote her new children’s book titled “Willow the White House Cat.” Imani is not captured in the original interview clip which is on the TV show’s YouTube channel.
A thorough analysis of the 8 minute 19 seconds video of Dr. Biden’s interview clip on The View’s verified YouTube channel found that Imani altered the interview. Imani infused himself into the video from 3minutes 50secs. He also changed the set of the video which was originally gold to blue, inserted his name on the screen and used frames of Dr. Biden, Goldberg and other co-hosts at different points in the interview.
This is not Imani’s first foray into political satire, having created similar parody videos on his YouTube channel. These parody videos target world leaders and media personalities. Imani’s altered videos which checkmate statements made by public figures. Imani has allegedly DISMANTLED artist Charlemagne, DESTROYED actor Robert De Niro and DEMOLISHED The View hosts by digitally editing original clips and adding satirising comments.
A clear pattern was also discovered in Imani’s video which showed that the interview videos he manipulates are usually from The View, as seen from his contents on Catch Up and Damon Imani Reposts.
Also, Imani’s profile on his website states that he is a producer and artist, who creates video content related to various topics, including societal issues, news, and current events. He is not a journalist or TV presenter as portrayed in the viral video and caption, where he was compared to Arise TV journalist, Rufai Oseni.
CONCLUSION
Dr Jill Biden was not confronted by Imani about Biden’s presidency. The original video was manipulated by Imani as a satire for comedic effect.
