{"id":225592,"date":"2026-06-03T18:21:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T22:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/03\/jacksandrei-blakenekov-pro-hurricanes-post-by-us-senate-candidate-skewered-by-nc-fans-over-ai-use-wral-com\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T18:30:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T22:30:16","slug":"jacksandrei-blakenekov-pro-hurricanes-post-by-us-senate-candidate-skewered-by-nc-fans-over-ai-use-wral-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/03\/jacksandrei-blakenekov-pro-hurricanes-post-by-us-senate-candidate-skewered-by-nc-fans-over-ai-use-wral-com\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Jacksandrei Blakenekov\u2019: Pro-Hurricanes post by US Senate candidate skewered by NC fans over AI use :: WRAL.com"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wral.com\/news\/nccapitol\/pro-carolina-hurricanes-post-by-us-senate-candidate-whatley-draws-scrutiny-for-ai-use-june-2026\/\">\u2018Jacksandrei Blakenekov\u2019: Pro-Hurricanes post by US Senate candidate skewered by NC fans over AI use :: WRAL.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wral.com\/news\/nccapitol\/pro-carolina-hurricanes-post-by-us-senate-candidate-whatley-draws-scrutiny-for-ai-use-june-2026\/\">https:\/\/www.wral.com\/news\/nccapitol\/pro-carolina-hurricanes-post-by-us-senate-candidate-whatley-draws-scrutiny-for-ai-use-june-2026\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-06-03 18:21:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.wral.com\">www.wral.com<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley is facing criticism for a social media post cheering on the Carolina Hurricanes, with some accusing him of being a fair-weather fan and employing artificial intelligence to create a non-existent player image. <\/li>\n<li>The controversial post, accompanying the message &#8220;Let\u2019s go, Canes!&#8221;, generated significant backlash from fans and social media users, who questioned the authenticity of the image and its design inconsistencies.<\/li>\n<li>Whatley acknowledged the use of AI for the graphic but dismissed its importance. He expressed support for the Hurricanes, suggesting they could positively impact the state if they won.<\/li>\n<li>Critics and political science professor David McLennan argue that the post has drawn attention to Whatley\u2019s campaign and raised questions about his credibility.<\/li>\n<li>Whatley is trailing Democrat Roy Cooper in polls for the U.S. Senate seat, and the incident along with previous controversies like the &#8220;barbecue scandal&#8221; have become part of the larger scrutiny of his campaign. <\/li>\n<li>Cooper, who is also a sports enthusiast and frequent Hurricanes fan, highlighted the irony of Whatley\u2019s situation in a campaign statement. <\/li>\n<li>David McLennan suggested a more straightforward support message would have been less contentious, minimizing future scrutiny over similar posts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018Jacksandrei Blakenekov\u2019: Pro-Hurricanes post by US Senate candidate skewered by NC fans over AI use&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":225593,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.wral.com\/739e85bb-600d-4b3c-a702-4b6b97956111?w=1200&h=630","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-225592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225592"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225592"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":225594,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225592\/revisions\/225594"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}