Kenneth Glad
Elections always bring out mudslinging and wild rumors. Voters expect a healthy dose of spin when politicians clash on the campaign trail. But sometimes a scandalous headline is not just a slight exaggeration, but a complete fabrication built from the ground up.
A dramatic news clip recently flooded social media feeds across the United States. It looked authentic. The broadcast claimed a prominent political candidate threatened his own staff with a lumberjack axe.
The target is Troy Jackson, a Democratic politician locked in a tight Senate race in Maine against Republican Susan Collins. Jackson actually worked as a logger as a young man.
In the fake broadcast, the candidate flew into a dangerous rage. The video claims he threatened to “cut all employees who did not comply in half with his lumberjack axe.”
A cloned reality
The clip looks professional at first glance. It proudly displays the logo of WABI-5, a local television station based in Maine.
Viewers quickly recognized the face and voice of real anchor Sierra Whaley. Yet the entire broadcast is a sophisticated digital fake.
According to TV 2, a search of the actual WABI-5 website reveals absolutely no trace of the story. No other legitimate American media outlet has reported the axe threat.
Even so, the fabricated report racked up more than 2.5 million views on X. The footage spread rapidly through ten major viral posts.
Tracing the source
Journalists tracked the earliest upload to a profile called Victor Vicktop55. That specific account regularly shares content from RT, a state-controlled Russian media network.
Within an hour of the first post, seven anonymous accounts amplified the clip. Then things escalated. Soon after, prominent pro-Trump influencers began sharing the footage with their large audiences.
The disinformation watchdog Gnida Project links the video to Storm-1516. French authorities have previously tied this notorious group directly to the Kremlin in Russia.
Exploiting a real weakness
Storm-1516 recently ran a similar smear campaign against Democrat James Talarico. This new operation crosses a dangerous line by cloning a real journalist to sell the lie.
The attackers designed the fake story carefully to match existing rumors. Jackson has actually faced harsh criticism over his fiery temper throughout his entire political career.
In July, American media reported he threw an empty plastic bottle at a colleague during a fierce argument. Disinformation operatives eagerly seized on that tiny grain of historical truth. They twisted it into an axe-wielding digital myth.
