Chicago’s WGN Morning News managed to turn a serious Bay Area injury update into an instant viral blooper Wednesday, airing a doctored image that made 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan look like Mitch McConnell. The station apologized Friday after viewers recognized the meme — complete with McConnell’s wife Elaine Chao beside him — as anything but a legitimate photo.
According to TMZ, the image aired during a sports segment while WGN was reporting on Shanahan’s recovery from a July 14 car crash near Palo Alto. WGN told TMZ that the photo was an internet meme, not authentic, and said the mistake was not intentional.
The on-air moment was preserved in a clip shared by 49ersSportsTalk on X, showing the fake image appear during the broadcast before the correct graphic was apparently brought up. The clip also captures why viewers immediately questioned how the image made it through the station’s production process.
WGN Morning News in Chicago aired a completely doctored photo of #49ers HC Kyle Shanahan with Mitch McConnell’s wife… on LIVE TV.
— 49ers Sports Talk (@49ersSportsTalk) July 29, 2026
How does something this obviously fake make it through producers, editors, and onto the air? 😬
H/T: @EastBayChris pic.twitter.com/NyKBc63WYZ
A Real Crash Behind The Wrong Graphic
Shanahan was injured in a July 14 crash near Palo Alto and was limited as 49ers training camp opened. The NFL reported that he suffered three broken ribs, a broken hand, a broken nose and a concussion, while the other driver was not injured and drugs or alcohol were not involved.
The crash had also generated conflicting early accounts, with NBC Sports Bay Area reporting that Shanahan later told reporters he was at fault after public records initially appeared to blame the other driver. That detail matters here because WGN was not airing a harmless celebrity mashup; it was using a fake image in coverage of a real, still-unfolding injury story.
Why The McConnell Photo Was So Recognizable
The meme took Shanahan’s face and placed it over McConnell’s in a hospital-room image released earlier this month, with Chao visible at his side, TMZ reported. McConnell has been recovering after a fall at home, making the real photo and its internet remixes unusually recognizable to viewers following the saga.
The episode is a reminder that live-news graphics do not get a free pass just because the internet has already made an image funny. For Bay Area fans watching Shanahan’s recovery, the gag briefly turned a serious update into a question about whether a television newsroom had mistaken a viral joke for a source photo.
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