In mid-March 2026, fabricated claims spread on Facebook alleging NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel had been injured while reporting in Israel. The posts were later identified by Snopes as AI-generated misinformation — not based on any real reporting or NBC News announcement.
Engel took direct action to shut down the rumor. On a March 10 podcast he stated the injury claims were "totally not true," and on March 12 he posted a video on X showing himself alive, well, and uninjured. Multiple pieces of evidence — including an Alamy stock photo from March 4 showing him on the ground in Tel Aviv and NBC News footage of him reporting from Israel — confirm he was actively working throughout early March with no signs of injury.
Snopes formally fact-checked and debunked the claim on March 13, 2026, noting that no NBC News injury announcement was ever issued. Engel expressed concern about the broader consequences of AI-generated disinformation targeting war correspondents, whose safety and credibility depend on accurate public information.