FACT CHECK: No, CNN Did Not Cut To An Applebee’s Ad Featuring Zac Brown Band’s “Chicken Fried” While Reporting On The Capture Of Nicolas Maduro

Fake news…this time.

I’m sure you’ve heard the news by now that overnight, the United States conducted a military operation Venezuela to capture dictator Nicolas Maduro, bringing him to New York to face charges of narco-terrorism, cocaine importation, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.

The United States, along with most other democratic countries, hasn’t recognize Maduro as the legitimate president of Venezuela since 2019, following a rigged 2018 election in the country that saw the brutal dictator claim to be re-elected with nearly 68% of the vote.

President Donald Trump has been signaling that Maduro’s days were numbered, with the United States moving military forces into the region last summer. The administration had attempted to negotiate with Maduro, but cut off diplomatic talks with his regime in October, leading to speculation that military operations in the country were coming.

After it was announced that Maduro had been captured, Venezuelans in both the United States and in their home country took to the streets to celebrate, hopeful that an end to his reign would also bring an end to the suffering and poverty that’s stricken the country.

Liberals here in America, meanwhile, criticized the operation as unlawful meddling in foreign affairs and blasted President Trump for not consulting with Congress before launching the strike.

Obviously the story has dominated headlines today on social media and on cable news. And one viral video claims to share a bizarre moment during CNN’s coverage of the Maduro story, when the network appeared to have cut from their coverage of the strikes directly to an Applebee’s ad for boneless wings, featuring the country hit “Chicken Fried” by Zac Brown Band.

There were so many tweets about the video that it even became a trending news story on X:

The only problem is the video is fake…this time.

CNN did not, in fact, cut into their coverage of the strikes in Venezuela to air an Applebee’s ad. They did, however, air the ad during their coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine back in 2022.

The bizarre moment came as the network cut directly from a shot of air raid sirens blaring in Kyiv, Ukraine to a side-by-side featuring the cheery “Chicken Fried,” a juxtaposition that caused many to call out the network for their callousness (and greed) while reporting on the obviously-serious situation.

Here’s the original video – which is, in fact, real:

The ad was eventually pulled and Applebee’s paused all advertising with the network for awhile, releasing a statement criticizing the placement of their ad:

“We are deeply concerned about the situation in Ukraine. When we were made aware that our ad was placed in this manner, we immediately reached out to CNN to pause our advertising on their network. It never should have aired, and we are disappointed in the actions of the network.”

CNN also removed the picture-in-picture “squeezeback” ads from their coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war to avoid the awkward situation in the future.

So no, the network didn’t make the same mistake again and air the same Applebee’s ad during their coverage of the strikes in Venezuela.

Hopefully they learned their lesson from the last time.The post FACT CHECK: No, CNN Did Not Cut To An Applebee’s Ad Featuring Zac Brown Band’s “Chicken Fried” While Reporting On The Capture Of Nicolas Maduro first appeared on Whiskey Riff.