hoax

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Mobile Firm's Meteor Stunt Backfires

Hoaxed Latvians plan to cancel Swedish company's contracts

(Newser) - A Swedish mobile phone company has dug itself into a crater with a marketing stunt involving a fake meteorite. Tele2 dug a hole in a meadow in Latvia and placed burning chemicals in the bottom to simulate a meteor strike, making headlines worldwide and fooling emergency services into cordoning off...

Thanks for the Ride, Falcon
 Thanks for the Ride, Falcon 
Brandon Keim
Oct 23, 2009 1:52 PM CDT

Thanks for the Ride, Falcon

(Newser) - Just about everyone seems to hate Richard Heene, but the emotion just proves how powerfully the balloon boy hoax gripped our collective imagination. “Had Richard called 911 and reported that he’d last seen his son near a Greyhound bus station, almost nobody would have cared,” writes Brandon...

Kanye Lives! And So Do These Other Hoaxed Celebs

Fake rumors of celebrity death from Kanye West to Frank Sinatra

(Newser) - We're happy for you Kanye, but Paul McCartney's may have been the best celebrity death hoax of all time. An elaborate Internet hoax fooled many into thinking Kanye West had been killed in a car crash yesterday, prompting the Los Angeles Times to look at other celebs who fell victim...

Balloon Boy Another Blow to Trust
 Balloon Boy 
 Another Blow 
 to Trust 
OPINION
Oct 22, 2009 3:35 AM CDT

Balloon Boy Another Blow to Trust

Politicians are the ones most lost in forest of fakery

(Newser) - The Falcon Heene fiasco sums up the dilemma facing a society riddled with fake news, Photoshop fakes, and even fake Rush Limbaugh quotes, writes Daniel Henninger. "Reality TV" is the perfect metaphor for a world where you need to routinely "ask yourself whether what's in front of you...

Balloon Family Feels 'Under Siege': Lawyer

Lawyer says stunt has turned into a "nightmare for the family."

(Newser) - Richard and Mayumi Heene are likely regretting the hoax they staged using their 6-year-old son and a balloon: With criminal charges looming and public opinion turning against them, the family feels “under siege,” their lawyer said today. The FAA has opened an investigation into the incident; it has...

How I Helped Plan the Balloon Boy Hoax
How I Helped Plan
the Balloon Boy Hoax
first person
Oct 18, 2009 3:12 PM CDT

How I Helped Plan the Balloon Boy Hoax

Scheme was a campaign to return to reality TV: researcher

(Newser) - Balloon boy Falcon Heene's father, Richard, planned the hoax because he wanted to return to reality TV, claims a former research assistant. Heene "was often driven by ego and fame," Robert Thomas says in an interview with Gawker, which the website acknowledges it paid him for. "...

Balloon Boy Throws Up on Today, GMA, as Dad Denies Hoax

Falcon Heene vomits twice on-air during morning show rounds

(Newser) - The Heene family made the morning show rounds today, denying that the “Balloon Boy” saga and search for assumed-missing son Falcon was a publicity stunt. “I went through such a rollercoaster of emotions yesterday, to have people say that, I think is extremely pathetic,” dad Richard told...

Was Balloon Boy Stunt a Hoax?
 Was Balloon Boy Stunt a Hoax? 
UPDATED
Oct 16, 2009 6:40 AM CDT

Was Balloon Boy Stunt a Hoax?

Falcon Heene tells CNN 'we did this for the show'

(Newser) - An apparent "slip" by Falcon Heene has fueled frenzied internet speculation that yesterday's balloon hoohah was a publicity stunt orchestrated by his family. When his dad asked him during a CNN interview with the family why the 6-year-old didn't come out of the attic when people were calling his...

Jim Morrison Is Not in This Photo
 Jim Morrison 
 Is Not in This Photo 
OPINION
Oct 13, 2009 6:27 PM CDT

Jim Morrison Is Not in This Photo

Chalk up ghostly image to wishful thinking

(Newser) - Jim Morrison is still dead. Repeat: Still dead. Unfortunately, and just in time for Halloween, researchers in a new book assert that an old photo taken of a visitor to Morrison's grave does indeed show the singer's ghostly image rising, complains Lou Carlozo. These supposed experts rule out weird lighting...

Underwater Billboards? They're Suspicious in Seattle

Seafood standby heavily promoting 'recently' discovered underwater ad campaign

(Newser) - After unearthing plans laid long ago by its founder, a legendary Seattle seafood restaurant is pulling underwater advertising billboards out of Puget Sound—though Ivar’s accompanying advertising blitz and founder Ivar Haglund’s notorious record of self-promotion have residents smelling something fishy, the Times reports. “If I was...

Hoaxsters Get German Media to Report Fake Attack on US

Fake city of Bluewater California supposedly attacked by rappers

(Newser) - A group of Internet-savvy hoaxers had all of Deutschland believing that a group of German rappers had attempted a suicide bombing in a California Thursday, Wired reports. The DPA—Germany’s version of the AP—ran a story with the headline “Attack in Small California Town,” reporting that...

Dutch Museum's 'Moon Rock' an Out-of-This-World Fake

Gift from NASA is just petrified wood, tests reveal

(Newser) - A “moon rock” exhibited at the Dutch national museum is actually petrified wood, the BBC reports. The three Apollo 11 astronauts gave the object to former PM Willem Drees on a tour following their 1969 moon mission; NASA shared similar artifacts with more than 100 other countries. The purported...

Gawker Catches HuffPo Falling for Hoax
 Gawker Catches HuffPo 
 Falling for Hoax 




OPINION
Jul 22, 2009 7:51 AM CDT

Gawker Catches HuffPo Falling for Hoax

Arianna must be thrilled, Gawker blogger muses

(Newser) - An airport in Central Park? Sounds ridiculous, but the Huffington Post fell for it yesterday—much to the delight and amusement of Gawker. HuffPo ran a satirical story on its homepage last night (caught in a screenshot by Gawker before it was removed) with what appeared to be a straight...

Moon-Landing Denier Exposed as a Cheat

Buzz Aldrin punched out man who claimed landings were faked

(Newser) - A filmmaker who persistently claims the moon landings were a hoax is beginning to look like a hoaxer himself, the Examiner reports. Bart Sibrel has produced documentaries labeling the Apollo landing a fake, but a new video has surfaced proving he deliberately mismatched NASA's audio and video footage to mislead...

Britney, Ellen Alive but Hacked
 Britney, Ellen Alive but Hacked 
GOSSIP ROUNDUP
Jun 29, 2009 12:37 PM CDT

Britney, Ellen Alive but Hacked

Also: Is Megan Fox dating co-star?

(Newser) - Never fear: Britney Spears is alive. A post from her Twitter account claiming she had died is false, the AP reports, a result of the hacking of her Twitpic account.  Ellen DeGeneres’ account with Twitpic—a program not owned by Twitter—was also hacked. Elsewhere:
  • Rumors continue to fly
...

Sony Armageddon Hoax in Crashing Bad Taste

World will end in 2012: Sony site

(Newser) - The latest Armageddon hoax has a marketing spin that LiveScience's Robert Roy Britt describes as a "sick twist." Sony Pictures went to elaborate lengths to disguise its movie plug on the "Institute for Human Continuity" website, which warns of "cataclysmic events that will devastate our planet"...

'Mancow': Waterboarding 'Absolutely Real'

Says term 'hoax' used to throw off police, station management

(Newser) - Erich “Mancow” Muller is outraged by the Gawker report that he faked his own waterboarding, the Chicago Tribune reports. The right-wing shock jock defended himself last night on MSNBC's Countdown: “It’s like saying that Mike Tyson’s daughter didn’t really hang herself,” he said. He...

'Mancow' Waterboarding May Have Been a Hoax

(Newser) - Erich “Mancow” Muller’s on-air waterboarding was a hoax, an anonymous tipster tells Gawker, forwarding a seemingly damning e-mail exchange between the shock jock’s publicist and a veterans group she was hoping could find a torturer. “It is going to have to look ‘real,’”...

Obit Editors Fall for Fake Wikipedia Quote

Papers printed Maurice Jarre gem, but he didn't say it; Irish student did

(Newser) - An Irish college student managed to prank the world media in an attempt to illustrate lax fact-checking in today’s 24-hour news cycle, the AP reports. When French composer Maurice Jarre died March 28, Shane Fitzgerald fabricated a delicious quote and put it on the Jarre Wikipedia page. The citizen...

Joaquin a 'Crazy Person With a Beard': Director

Gray echoes comments from last month

(Newser) - If Joaquin Phoenix’s transition to rapping is a hoax “then it’s the most elaborate thing that I have ever seen,” Two Lovers director James Gray tells the Times of London, citing the actor’s in-home recording studio and constant claims of being “tired” on-set as...

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