Chicago news station mistakenly airs AI-generated Mitch McConnell hospital photo parody for Kyle Shanahan story
Chicago news station WGN-TV was fooled by an AI-generated Mitch McConnell hospital photo parody, showing injured San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan “recovering” in the hospital next to McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao.
Shanahan, 46, suffered serious injuries after a July 14 car crash. On July 28, X user @EastBayChris posted a parody putting the 49ers coach in the place of McConnell’s much-memed July 12 “proof-of-life” photo, writing, “First image of Kyle Shanahan recovering in the hospital after his accident has been released.”
The picture is not real. After the ailing 84-year-old McConnell posted the photo, many on social media used AI and other photo-editing tools to replace him in the picture with various humorous characters.
The joke was apparently lost on WGN-TV, which aired the image during a segment on Shanahan’s injury. The blunder led to a surreal moment as the studio erupted in laughter while the meme appeared on screen, leaving the anchor briefly confused.
The segment covered updates in Shanahan’s case. Shanahan had taken responsibility for the crash, which was initially blamed on the other driver. The coach admitted that he had dropped his phone in the car and briefly looked away from the road to pick it up when the crash occurred.
“I was going 20 miles an hour,” Shanahan said. “I was not on my phone, but I dropped my phone, and it was stuck in my seat. It’s on my lap, and it slid off. And I went down to look for it and took my eyes off the road for two seconds. As I was coming up, the airbags hit me in my face, and they broke my nose, and then they said the visor really gashed me. I took my eyes off the road looking for my phone, and my car veered into someone.”
As for McConnell, he was in the hospital after falling and picking up a “mild case of pneumonia.” In his latest update on July 27, he said he was undergoing rigorous physical therapy but had no timetable for returning to the Senate — much to the chagrin of his colleagues and Kentucky governor Andy Beshear.
The meme’s editing of McConnell’s “proof of life” photos is a form of dark humor that plays on skepticism surrounding the images. Some online conspiracy theorists have claimed the photos could have been digitally manipulated, arguing that the limited public updates from McConnell and his team have fueled questions about whether his condition is more serious than has been publicly disclosed.
The idea has led many to call for McConnell to release a video or call in to a news station to prove he is capable of speech and serving out the remainder of his term, which ends in January 2027.