Former NFL reporter turned right-wing pundit Michele Tafoya caught red-handed recycling years-old photo
Tafoya, who ended her NBC Sports career in 2022 to jump headlong into GOP politics and right-wing punditry, tweeted on Tuesday afternoon an image of a note that she had ostensibly just received while she was traveling.
'Thank you to the flight attendant who handed this to me in flight,' Tafoya captioned the photo, which showed her holding a handwritten letter personally thanking her for being a 'voice of reason' and bringing the attendant 'a little hope in what seems a dark world.'
It didn't take long, however, for social media sleuths to discover that Tafoya had shared this same exact note in a previous post. And when she first tweeted it out, Tafoya used it as an opportunity to promote her podcast, which supposed flight attendant had praised as 'wonderful.'
'While on a flight to NYC to appear on @Gutfeldfox I was handed this note by a flight attendant. I won't reveal the person's name, but this made my day, to say the very least!!!!! Maybe this will inspire you to SUBSCRIBE,' Tafoya noted in May 2023, making sure to highlight her appearance on Fox News host Greg Gutfeld's panel show.
As soon as it was revealed that Tafoya had reused the exact same note in an effort to juice social media engagement – her post on X now contains a Community Note linking back to the original photo – the mockery over the MAGA commentator's stunt came flooding right in.
It also led many critics to express doubt that the letter was ever written by a star-struck flight attendant in the first place.
'You should at least delete the old one before you tell the same totally real story again. At least you used a slightly different photo,' attorney Damin Toell quipped, acknowledging that Tafoya had posted an image of the letter from another angle.
'Michelle, you lying **** of a stunt queen. At least get a new letter!' film critic John Rocha tweeted. 'Sure feels like you wrote it yourself if you could produce the exact same letter and handwriting in 2023 AND 2025. Pulling a William Hurt in Broadcast News with your manufactured emotion here.'
'This did not happen when you posted it in 2023 and it did not happen today. No one wants to subscribe to your dumb s***,' internet personality Tony Posnanski snarked.
Amid the onslaught of online ridicule over her clout-chasing reposting of the fawning in-flight letter, Tafoya has done what many others before her have tried when they've become the main character on social media – tweet through it.
On Tuesday evening, she posted a short clip captioned 'Why Communism Fails Every Time,' only to find that the majority of respondents were still poking fun at her for using a recycled photo. One social media user also flagged one of Tafoya's tweets from last year in which she blasted Kamala Harris' campaign for posting a clip of a four-year-old JD Vance interview.
'They are lying and they don't care that they are lying,' she noted at the time.
As of publication, Tafoya has yet to publicly address or acknowledge the repeated posting of the note. The Independent has reached out to Tafoya's representatives for comment.
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