If London's gay pride movement had joined ISIS, wouldn't that be. The fact that they were all alone on this story, that no one had reported or even seen ISIS overtaking the London gay pride rally, might have chastened more modest networks.īut not CNN, which paused only for a bit of self-congratulation on breaking this exciting scoop: "I seem to be the only person who had spotted this," the London reporter says. 3) So CNN really thought it was breaking the story that ISIS had infiltrated London's gay pride rally? One reporter called the flag "a very bad mimicry, but a very clear attempt to mimic, the ISIS flag."ĬNN described the writing on the flag as "gobbledygook." In fact, it was dildos and butt plugs.
(It was dildos and butt plugs.)ĬNN anchor Suzanne Malveaux uses her face to express how concerning this story is (CNN still image via YouTube)īut, for CNN, all of this evidence was not taken as an indication that the flag was probably benign, but rather as signs of just how shocking and newsworthy this story is. As one of the reporters on the story pointed out, for example, it was waving at a London gay pride rally, which is sort of an unusual place for an ISIS flag to be.Īnd, also, they went on, the script on the flag, which on actual non-satirical ISIS flags would be in Arabic, was not in Arabic at all. What makes this all so amazing is that CNN actually did dwell at some length on the indications that this was probably not an ISIS flag waving at a London gay pride rally. 2) Did no one at CNN notice that this "ISIS flag" was in fact covered with dildos and butt plugs, and also was appearing at a gay pride rally, all of which should suggest maybe it was not really an ISIS flag? And was waving at a London gay pride rally. The flag, I cannot stress this enough, was clearly covered with images of dildos and butt plugs. A London-based CNN reporter who called in - yes, there were multiple reporters on this, no one covers breaking news like CNN - pointed out with concern, "This man, quite distinctive from the rest of the crowd, he was dressed in black and white." The segment went on to analyze the photo of the flag in great depth, zooming in especially on the man waving it. The word "unnerving" made several other appearances in the very long segment about a flag of dildos and butt plugs. "An unnerving sight today at a London gay pride celebration: an ISIS flag among a sea of rainbow colors," CNN anchor Suzanne Malveaux announced. CNN dedicated an entire six and a half minutes to covering, in a tenor of total seriousness and extreme gravity, what they said was an ISIS flag being waved at a gay pride parade, when in fact it was readily and painfully obvious that the "ISIS flag" was in fact a joke flag covered with images of dildos and butt plugs. I wish I were exaggerating here even a little but I am not. 1) Are you pulling my leg or did CNN really confuse a dildo-covered gay pride banner with the official flag of ISIS? The supposed ISIS flag was in fact a parody, bearing outlined images of dildos and butt plugs in place of Arabic script.įor the clarification of whatever unknown number of CNN producers and reporters who collaborated on this segment, as well as any CNN viewers who happened to catch it and may now need things cleared up, here is a brief explainer on the now-notorious ISIS gay pride dildo flag. According to the chyron on the bottom of the screen, "ISIS FLAG SPOTTED AT GAY PRIDE PARADE." On Saturday, during coverage of a gay rights rally, CNN ran a segment with an alarming message. So why would the flag of a terrorist group notorious for murdering civilians, particularly gay civilians, be flying at a gay pride parade? Well, what was unnoticed by Pawle was that the writing was not Arabic, as she correctly pointed out, but it was also not gobbledygook – it was something else entirely.This is a real screenshot of a CNN segment. She told an event organizer and the police. And nobody seemed to be raising any questions or pointing it out,” she said. Pawle went further in her description, ending with “Anyway, I seemed to be the only person who had spotted this. But it’s very distinctive, the ISIS Flag.” In fact, it looks like it could be gobbledygook. I mean, if you look at the flag closely it’s clearly not Arabic. “The black and white flag with the distinctive lettering. “This man dressed in black and white was waiving what appears to be a very bad mimicry, but a clear attempt to mimic, the ISIS flag,” Pawle said. What she thought she saw was a man dressed in black waiving an ISIS flag in London’s annual gay pride parade. CNN International’s Lucy Pawle saw something disturbing when she left work Saturday, or at least she thought she had.