Page 23 - Unlikely Stories 4

The President’s New Birthday Suit

press investigated them and found no evidence of fakery. And the
leakage of politically-influential information was nothing new: both
sides had taken advantage of it in the past. The president, when
questioned, modestly denied knowledge of his leisure pursuits being
recorded. A practiced prevaricator, he quickly convinced himself, as
well, of their authenticity. His opponent, although in much better
shape, could not generate on short notice any footage of himself that
could convey the amount of effort he was expending on a strenuous
state-to-state campaign trail, speaking to crowds and shaking hands
for hours on end.
Then a curious thing happened. An obscure website hosted by
GRRLA000 uploaded a post claiming that the “home movies” were,
indeed, fake—based on a very simple piece of evidence. The
president was left-handed, but in the videos he had suddenly become
right-handed. It had nothing to do with how realistic the imagery
was. The NSA global internet monitor detected that posting, along
with millions of others in an echo-chamber of conspiracy theorists
attempting to expose and condemn the “deepfakes” without any
convincing explanation. By the time GRRLA000 was identified as a
ten-year-old girl in Latsanada, California, her observation had gone
viral.
The president’s advisers, duly notified, immediately set in motion a
plan behind the scenes to punish the misguided perpetrators of the
hoax; revenge was the flip-side of loyalty in his administration. Then
they wondered about how to counter the claim without
compromising national security: revealing the advanced technology
would be disastrous. People were already beginning to doubt the
veracity of what they saw and heard in the media. This close to an
election any disillusionment about the incumbent could switch the
advantage rapidly. Damage control was in order.
“You know what I want.”
The advisers closed their eyes briefly in prayer.
“Yes, Mr. President. We have a solution. Given that the videos
must remain unimpeachable, there is only one path available to us
now: you are, in fact, ambidextrous. We will change and create data

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