CNN’s Fallout 4 Blunder Over Russian Hack Report

Although it is still considered a major news network, CNN has had its share of blunders over the past few years, which many comedians and late night talk shows chose to milk for all they are worth. However, the network’s most recent gaff includes the use of a screenshot that features codes and numbers on a Fallout 4 computer. Bethesda Game Studios took the opportunity to poke fun at CNN.

As PC Gamers points out, hacking the U.S. government servers using the computers found in Fallout 4 would have been pretty difficult. Not only is it severely underpowered due to technological constraints, it is also fictional. Oh, and there’s the part about the internet not actually being accessible to the greater public since such a service didn’t exist in the universe that Bethesda created.

In any case, it would seem that CNN was not aware of any of these things since it still chose to feature images of the unit on a piece about the recent Russian hacking reports, albeit on B-roll. This isn’t exactly a big deal in terms of implications regarding international relations either. It’s basically just a hilarious turn of events brought on by potentially inexperienced staff members or being pressed for time.

The first to notice the funny incident are naturally the frequent denizens of Reddit, Game Revolution reports. Of course, since this is the internet, it sparked a firestorm of speculations with regards to the Fallout 4 detail and the Russian hack. Users started asking if there’s a connection between the Fallout series and Russia after all, or if the hacking simulation in the game actually depicted real hacking techniques.

Naturally, there has been no evidence to prove any of these things, though the internet did get a response from Bethesda via Tweet. The post features an image of a Fallout 4 hacking mini game with the captions “Sneak Peek at Season 3 of @whoismrrobot.”