MS NOW shared AI-manipulated Alex Pretti photo on TV, website and YouTube. Here’s what we know

Claim:

MS NOW broadcast an AI-manipulated photo of Alex Pretti on its TV channel, website and YouTube channel.

Rating:

Context

The news network, formerly known as MSNBC, featured what it later called an “AI-enhanced” image on the cable news network’s TV channel, website and YouTube channel. A spokesperson for its parent company Versant Media Group told Snopes the network obtained the image from the internet without the knowledge someone had altered it, and said the network itself didn’t enhance the photo.

A rumor users shared online in January 2026 claimed that cable news network MS NOW, formerly MSNBC, broadcast an artificial intelligence-enhanced photo of slain Minneapolis intensive care nurse Alex Pretti. According to users’ social media posts, the image presented a more attractive version of Pretti, who cared for critically ill veterans for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

(@TRHLofficial/X)

Federal immigration agents fatally shot Pretti, 37, on a Minneapolis street on Jan. 24 — a killing captured on video by multiple witnesses, igniting a wave of renewed protests of the immigration enforcement tactics authorized by President Donald Trump’s administration.

Readers emailed us to ask about MS NOW featuring an AI-enhanced image and searched Snopes’ website for more information. In short, it was true that the network aired an inauthentic image of Pretti.

On Jan. 26, the MS NOW TV show “Deadline: White House,” featuring host Nicole Wallace, published an AI-enhanced photo of Pretti, broadcasting the manipulated picture on the TV cable news network as well as featuring it in a video and thumbnail image on the network’s YouTube channel and website. A syndicated version of the video also appeared on MSN.com. As of this writing on Jan. 29, only the YouTube version featured a correction.

A spokesperson for Versant Media Group, the parent company of MS NOW, told Snopes by phone the network obtained the image from the internet without the knowledge someone had altered it, and said the network itself didn’t enhance the photo — as some users sharing the rumor had claimed. We also emailed the VA to ask for a copy of Pretti’s official photo and will update this article if we receive further information.

Genuine and AI-enhanced Pretti images

As of Jan. 29, the Wikimedia Commons media-hosting website contained (archived) several authentic and inauthentic images of Pretti. Two of the authentic images showed an original, undoctored photo (archived) of Pretti, including one picture (archived) of his photo displayed on a wall. Both images had upload dates of Jan. 24, the day of his fatal shooting.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Aside from the genuine images, two inauthentic images showing alterations in Pretti’s face and body were on Wikimedia Commons, with upload dates of Jan. 25 and Jan. 26. The images’ file names included the words “AI upscaled.” Both image-hosting pages contained notices indicating one or more people sought to delete the manipulated images.

The file name for this image on Wikimedia Commons featured the words “AI upscaled.” Pretti’s scrubs featured illegible letters, indicating the use of AI. (Wikimedia Commons)

The lettering on Pretti’s scrubs in the “AI upscaled” versions of the image was illegible, indicating someone enhanced the genuine photo with AI as opposed to other digital-editing tools.

AI-altered image appeared on MS NOW

The Internet Archive’s TV News Archive hosted the entire “Deadline: White House” episode from Jan. 26, including showing at least one moment Wallace’s show broadcast the AI-enhanced image.

The MS NOW YouTube channel featured the AI-enhanced photo in a thumbnail image for a Jan. 26 video (archived) lasting 10 minutes and 21 seconds, titled, “‘Shameful period in American history’: Outrage grows in Minneapolis over Alex Pretti’s killing.” MS NOW has since replaced the video’s thumbnail image and updated the text description with an editor’s note about the swap, clarifying that the previous thumbnail featured “an AI-enhanced image of Alex Pretti.” That editor’s note appeared as early as Jan. 27, according to an article (archived) documenting MS NOW’s use of the misleading image on journalist Megyn Kelly’s website.

Someone managing the MS NOW YouTube channel also potentially used YouTube’s “editor” tool to trim out the first 40 seconds of the video. As of Jan. 29, the inauthentic, AI-enhanced photo still appeared in the same clip on the MS NOW website (archived) and MSN.com syndicated version (archived), both in the video — lasting 11 minutes and 1 second — and thumbnail image.

We did not yet locate footage from Wallace’s Jan. 26, 27 or 28 broadcasts where she issued an on-air correction for using the inauthentic image. No such notices appeared on the MS NOW public relations X account, either.

A reverse-image search found the same AI-manipulated image on social media accounts — including that of a Texas state representative (archived) — on nursing websites and in publications including the Daily Mail and International Business Times.

For further reading, we previously reported about AI-enhanced images of Pretti’s shooting.

Sources