Fact Check

Risqué Anderson Cooper Photograph

An image purporting to show Anderson Cooper posing on a bench in a pair of briefs was digitally manipulated.

Published Oct. 27, 2016

Claim:
A photograph shows CNN reporter Anderson Cooper seductively posing in his underwear.

A photograph purportedly showing Anderson Cooper posing in his underwear was widely shared on social media during the 2016 presidential election, apparently in an attempt to discredit the CNN reporter:

cooper twitter
cooper photo

This image was also included in articles calling Cooper a hypocrite:

After Bashing Trump For Objectifying Women, Anderson Cooper and Megyn Kelly’s Scandalous Skeletons Crawl Out.

However, the image displayed here is fake.  It was created by pasting an image of Cooper's head (and socks, apparently) onto another person's body, and has been circulating the internet since at least 2012 when it was posted to the now defunct Feedlol.com:

cooper

It's also not entirely clear how this photograph would be particularly scandalous, even if it were real.

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.