Fake report about Satanism, Olympics uses USA TODAY logo | Fact check

An Aug. 4 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) includes a video with USA TODAY’s logo and branding that says the Church of Satan thanked the organizers of the 2024 Paris Olympics for a “magnificent” opening ceremony.
“High Priest Peter H. Gilmore called the opening ceremony not just the best in Olympic history. He emphasized that it is the best mass international event in the last 50 years,” reads text in the video, which also includes voice narration.
The video includes a clip of a nearly naked man painted blue and draped in strings of flowers who performed in the Olympics opening ceremony, a controversial scene that drew condemnation from religious groups for evoking a famous painting of Jesus Christ.
A similar post on X, formerly Twitter, was reposted more than 200 times in two days.
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The video is a fabrication that wasn’t reported or published by USA TODAY. The Church of Satan said it hasn’t made any such statements thanking Paris Olympics organizers.
The Facebook video plays on the controversy over the apparent depiction of Dionysus, the Greek god of fertility, wine and revelry, during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics in July. The scene upset some Christians because of its resemblance to Leonardo da Vinci’s famed painting, “The Last Supper,” which shows Jesus Christ dining with disciples before his crucifixion.
But USA TODAY did not report or publish the video.
“The post circulating on X using the USA TODAY logo and branding is fake,” a USA TODAY spokesperson said.
The Church of Satan, an organization that defines Satanism as an atheist philosophy that rejects any belief in the supernatural, said the claim in the video is false. It responded to a version of the claim on X on Aug. 21, writing, “This is fake. We never made any such statements.”
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“I have no interest in the Paris Olympics,” Peter Gilmore, the high priest of the Church of Satan mentioned in the Facebook video, said in a statement posted by the organization on X. “Having not viewed it, I could not possibly comment on, nor endorse, the opening ceremonies. I have not been interviewed by anyone concerning this subject. Statements posted anywhere claiming otherwise are lies.”
The Facebook and X users who shared the video did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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