Fact check: Viral screenshot of an opinion column was shared by parody account

A widely shared post on social media shows the headline of what appears to be an opinion column with the same formatting as the Guardian newspaper’s website.

The supposed opinion piece was titled: Someone wished me “Merry Christmas”, I called the Police. A journalist’s name and her photograph are placed under the headline with a December 23 2024 date stamp.

Evaluation

This is a doctored screenshot. The article does not appear on the author’s page on the Guardian’s website.

In the top right-hand corner where the Guardian’s logo would normally be, it reads “The Grauniad” in a similar font to the real site.

The facts

The screenshot was posted by a parody account on social media site X at around 8am on December 24. That was several hours before the viral post was shared.

That account – which describes itself as “both satire and parody” – is called The Grauniad Official, an anagram of Guardian.

The account that made the post that went viral shared the screenshot with several laughing face emojis added but did not explain the image was created as a joke.

There is no similarly titled article by the alleged author on the Guardian’s website. In fact, she appears not to have written for the newspaper since November 2016.

This is not the first time the PA news agency has found screenshots of fake Guardian articles being circulated online. In October, a doctored opinion piece about Christmas trees by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper was debunked by PA’s fact-checking team.

Links

Post on X (archived)

Post by The Grauniad Official on X (archived)

The Grauniad Official on X (archived)

Author page on the Guardian (archived)

PA Media – Fact check: Home Secretary’s latest opinion piece for newspaper was in June (archived)