The Atlantic did not publish a headline calling U.S. President Joe Biden heroic after falling off his bike when on a weekend trip to Rehoboth Beach in Delaware in June 2022. The image is fake, and no such headline was published by the outlet.
The image features The Atlantic banner on the upper third of the screenshot, with the supposed headline that reads: “The Heroism of Biden’s Bike Fall.” The sub-headline reads: “The President gracefully illustrated an important lesson for all Americans – when we fall, we must get back up.”
One user shared the screenshot on Twitter and said: “Are you kidding me??” ( here )
Another said: "In 2022 this masquerades as journalism" ( here ).
An iteration of the claim shared on Twitter gathered more than 12,000 likes at the time of writing. An archived version of the tweet can be seen ( archive.ph/wip/JqMLz ).
Other examples of the fake screenshot circulating online can be found ( here ), ( here ), ( here ), ( here ).
One June 18, 2022, President Biden fell off his bike during a weekend trip to Rehoboth Beach in Delaware. He appeared to be uninjured and stood back up immediately, telling supporters and a press pool who stood close by, “I got my foot caught up” ( here ), ( here ).
A spokesperson for The Atlantic confirmed to Reuters that no such headline was published by the outlet.
“I can verify that this is not a real article from The Atlantic, and is indeed fabricated,” Anna Bross the Senior Vice President of Communications at The Atlantic told Reuters.
A search through The Atlantic website did not reveal the supposed article ( archive.ph/wip/M9wQE ).
A Twitter advanced search did not reveal any such headline published by The Atlantic’s Twitter account (@TheAtlantic), nor did a Google advanced search.
Reuters has previously addressed fabricated screenshots from news outlets that duped users online ( here ), ( here ), ( here ) and ( here ).
VERDICT
Altered. The Atlantic did not publish a headline calling Biden’s fall from his bike in June 2022 ‘heroic.’ The image circulating online is fabricated and no such headline was published by the outlet.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.