Adam Saleh, the YouTuber who is claiming Delta kicked him off a plane for “speaking in another language,” has a quite a history of pulling these ‘pranks’ on airliners filled with unsuspecting passengers; in fact it’s kind of his thing. Saleh’s video was quickly shared by members of the media that are verified on Social Media. Outraged by the fake hate crime, which fit their worldview, they tweeted and retweeted it. This hoax led to calls for a boycott of the airline.

Now other passengers are speaking out and they are denying Sahel’s account:
Soledad O’Brien happened to have a friend on the same flight as Adam Sahel.

A LOT still unclear. But apparently woman sitting near my friend tipped off flight attendants he was a youtube star known for pranks.

— Soledad O'Brien (@soledadobrien) December 21, 2016

Almost as soon as the news of the “hate crime” broke, Saleh’s story started to fall apart:

Also people on plane disputing call to mom

— Soledad O'Brien (@soledadobrien) December 21, 2016

It appears that Saleh also attempted to pass through security with a fake ID prior to pulling the countdown stunt. This wasn’t hard to find to be honest, but to the mainstream media, some stories are too good to check.

Adam Saleh was profiled in a “the rise of a Muslim Youtube Star” by The National. He even made an appearance on Ellen.

You know you are doing well when the comedienne Ellen DeGeneres takes notice. The talk-show host and star-maker picked Saleh as a finalist for her Dance Dare competition. A popular feature of her television show, the talent quest encourages people to be filmed dancing behind unsuspecting members of the public. Saleh’s non-rhythmic high jinks were broadcast on the show in May 2012. His skills have also been acknowledged by the regional broadcasting industry – he was invited to be a guest speaker at the Arab Media Forum in Dubai in May, where he discussed his career as a “new-media personality”

So finding out that he probably was in the middle of one of his skits wouldn’t have been hard if the media had bothered to look, but that’s not what they do. With the speed of social media, there is an opportunity to share information in real time. We’ve all been guilty of sharing something only to find out later the initial report was wrong, it happens. What doesn’t happen often enough is the correction of the false statements. Instead they are swept under the proverbial rug, as though they never happened or spawned a hashtag revolution.

This is how things like the ludicrous #Pizzagate get started. Someone will come across this story, and believe regardless of all evidence to the contrary that Saleh was actually discriminated against. There of course will be those who say that even though this was fake, it is “representative” of real hate crimes. These people are missing the point. Saleh isn’t doing Muslims any favors, nor is it at all funny to those who were frightened enough to report his behavior.

CBS had more on Saleh’s previous video claims:

Saleh has a history of posting prank videos designed to look like the real thing, including an infamously faked viral video that alleged to have shown anti-Muslim bias from the NYPD. In 2014, Saleh’s video “RACIAL PROFILING EXPERIMENT!” showed him and friend staging a fight twice in front of an alleged police officer, once in Western street clothes, and once in Muslim clothes. The Smoking Gun revealed the hoax relatively quickly, but two years later, as of Wednesday morning, Saleh still does not indicate that the video was staged in its description.

Now Adam Saleh is saying this time he’s serious, and like the boy who cried wolf, who will believe him?