Bad News by Rob Brotherton

Author:Rob Brotherton
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472962874
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Chapter Six

Deepfakes

In 2019, some of the world’s most powerful political leaders came together in an unprecedented show of international solidarity. It didn’t involve any agreements or treaties. There were no historic summits or accords. There was only a YouTube video.

It begins with the slow, familiar piano chords and ascending motif of John Lennon’s “Imagine.” The first line is sung in Lennon’s plaintive tone, but it’s not Lennon we see singing. It’s President Donald Trump.

He mouths along with Lennon’s vocal, sitting in front of two flags, the Stars and Stripes and the Great Seal of the United States, as if addressing the nation with news of national importance. He looks directly into the camera, delivering the line with a serious semi-squint, and adding his signature half nod, half head-tilt as a flourish at the end. There’s no mistaking this for a look-alike or an impersonator in makeup and prosthetics. This is the president of the United States of America, inexplicably lip-synching to a corny song, by an inveterate hippie, about world peace.

The next line is mouthed not by Trump, but by Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, standing in front of a backdrop of Moscow by night. After delivering the line, Putin tilts his head back and arches an eyebrow slightly, as if to say, “This is pretty surprising, no?”

The verse continues with Theresa May, British prime minister, posed in front of a Christmas tree. Then former president Barack Obama, looking somehow younger than he did when he left office. Shinzo Abe of Japan is next, followed by North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, then Chinese president Xi Jinping. Canada’s Justin Trudeau croons his line.

Interspersed with the mugging world leaders are shots of people watching the video. A couple gaze at their television in quiet reverence in their dimly lit, tastefully decorated living room. A young woman watches a stream on her cell phone, its blue glow illuminating the look of delight on her face. Tourists in Times Square point and smile as the video beams out over massive digital billboards. A group of friends around a small campfire have set up a projector to watch under the starry sky. Another group are watching over drinks at a bar, transfixed. The surprise and awe at the momentous event they are witnessing is obvious. One man has his hand on his chin as if in disbelief. He briefly turns to a friend, perhaps to check that he isn’t imagining things.

Some of the images are particularly on the nose. A soldier in combat fatigues watches on a portable screen, set up in front of what looks like mortars ready to be fired, as Putin mouths along with Lennon suggesting that in his imaginary world there would be no cause for war; the soldier is speaking into a walkie-talkie, presumably calling off the strike. The line imagining no religion is simultaneously mouthed by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Iranian president Hassan Rouhani.

The video ends with a slow pan out on a grid of nine of

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