Shell Video Wasn't Real

Scott Detrow

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Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.

Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.

Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

June 7, 2012 | 3:00 PM

Getty Images

File this under corrections and clarifications:
For about ten minutes, we posted a link to what appeared to be video of a Shell photo-op gone wrong: a model oil rig suffering a blowout and spilling liquor all over a guest.
Turns out, the video was a fake. Gawker’s Jalopnik figured it out pretty quickly:

Lots of people will believe this video, because they want to believe it, but it simply doesn’t hold up to even the most minimal scrutiny.
Here’s the statement from Shell.
“Recently groups that oppose Shell’s plans in offshore Alaska have posted a fraudulent video that appears to show Shell employees at an event at the Seattle Space Needle. Shell did not host, nor participate in an event at the Space Needle and the video does not involve Shell or any of its employees. We continue to focus on a safe exploration season in 2012.”

We weren’t the only ones fooled, but we certainly regret the error.