When the current T.D. Jakes triple-decker sandwich of controversy started last week, the super-sleuths and schadenfreude faithful combed the internet to find the good Bishop doing or saying anything to suggest that his sexual proclivities might deem him a hypocrite as a Christian mega pastor.
Suggested Reading
Someone grabbed a clip, which if you watch in full seems to be of Jakes preaching about traversing hardship, as pastors do. But considering (still completely unfounded) accusations that he’s had dalliances with other men, the 13-second clip hits a bit differently, especially when shown out of context. It’s been viewed hundreds of thousands of times across multiple platforms.
Method Man was a victim of a similar clip last week, in which it appears that he’s insulting Kanye West and insisting that he saw him at a Diddy party providing oral pleasures to men in the bathroom. The clip would have so many bleeped-out words it’s not worth writing out here.
Controversy magnets Tasha K and 50 Cent both shared the video on their Instagram accounts, which have more than 31 million followers collectively. Fif being Fif, he captioned the post, “This has not been confirmed, but ya see why I stayed away from the man’s party’s.”
Meth himself hopped in 50’s comments section under the post and wrote, “This video fake 5.. you and Diddy keep me out of this shit 😂😂😂,” the Wu-Tang Clan member commented. He added, “The real vid is on YouTube .. (method man bossip).. do your research .. yall fallin for the remix.”
Fif and Tasha both removed the video from their accounts; the full interview – which is 12 years old, by the way – is on YouTube. The quote is taken out of a full context in which Meth voices his disdain for people and websites — including Wendy Williams — who take things out of context in an attempt to go viral.
In other words, what happened to him with that very video clip, which went viral.
I shared the Jakes video on my Facebook page…not because I believe that sermon had anything to do with sex, but because I found it utterly amusing in the context of the controversy. But we all know that one dude we haven’t seen since 12th grade graduation who’s never left our hometown and whom we forget about as he lingers deep in the recesses of our Facebook friends list until he posts a video like this with an earnest “SEE I BEEN TRYIN’ TO TELL Y’ALL!!!”
These are the folks who don’t think to look deeper into an obviously older video to get more context: If Meth said that about Ye in 2011 and meant it, everyone would’ve known about it already.
The tactic of taking video and photo out of context to fool the masses is tried and true — politicians have been doing it for decades. Remember when Donald Trump’s people released inauthentic images of his 2017 inauguration to give the impression that more than a fraction of the people showed up for that raggedy event as they did for Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration?
TikTok is a large avenue for this deception, as material shared on the platform is not as policed for authenticity as it is on Meta’s Facebook and Instagram. A 10-year-old with foundational video editing capabilities can create a video of a shark attack in Chicago and watch it go viral at the hands of people without a basic understanding of marine biology.
People with too much free time, along with the rapid proliferation of A.I., suggests that this issue will get worse and…probably get even worse still. But it doesn’t take a professional journalist to sniff out fugazi material: If you watch or see something that’s simply too wild to be true, stop, use your noodle and take an extra step to Google things. (Check out The Washington Post’s Fact Checker guide to manipulated video.)
Because if you come off looking like Boo-Boo the Fool and have to walk back a fake share, chances are you’ll look even stupider if you attempt to deny that you got got. Don’t go out like that in 2024.
Straight From 
Sign up for our free daily newsletter.