Newspapers Have Published Their Share of Hoaxes

 
Now that we know we’ve all been hoodwinked into believing six-year old Falcon Heene might have been in the runaway helium balloon, it is worth noting that this wasn’t the only hoax involving a balloon in which the media helped perpetuate.

On April 13, 1844, Edgar Allan Poe wrote an article in The New York Sun, chronicling how Monck Mason, leaving England for Paris drifted off course and had traveled across the Atlantic in three days, landing safely on Sullivan’s Island near Charleston South Carolina, while riding an ``egg-shaped gas-filled balloon’’, named the Victoria.

The story caused such a stir that an excited mob quickly gathered outside of the editorial offices of the Sun, hoping to land a copy of the historic edition. Not until two days later did the New York daily publish a correction, noting the story was pure fiction. The published correction read: ``We are inclined to believe the intelligence is erroneous.’’

Not only was the story untrue, but a balloon would never cross the Atlantic until 1978, when the Double Eagle II successfully landed in Misreay near Paris, 137 hours after departing Presque Isle, Maine. The first aircraft to fly over the Atlantic was pulled off by a U.S. Navy seaplane in 1919.

31 years later, readers of the Chicago Times picked up the February 13, 1875 edition only to met with the alarming headline: ``BURNED ALIVE!’’, reporting on the gruesome accounts of how a fire engulfed a neighborhood Chicago theater, which resulted in ``blackened corpses’’ covered with the grime of the conflagration being ``trampled to death’’ The paper even went so far to list names of casualties by initials (customary at the time), causing some to believe they had just lost loved ones in the raging inferno. Readers were led to believe as many as 200 patrons had died.

Not until much further down in the story did the Times inform readers no one actually died; in fact, there was no fire at all; they fictionalized the account only to enlighten readers, as a public service, to the fire hazards prevalent in Chicago theaters.

The Times chief rival, the Chicago Tribune went to work on the Times’ unconscionable hoax with a sharp rebuke for causing such unnecessary commotion. The Tribune then reported a woman collapsed and died after reading the Times false account of the fire.  Similar to the Times, the woman’s death, the Tribune reported later in the story, didn’t really happen; it was merely a hoax

In the 20th century, there were other hoaxes in which the media played a central role, but not nearly as dramatic.

On June 7, 1976, New York Magazine splashed with a cover story: "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night" by Nik Cohn, who recounted the tales of the disco scene in Brooklyn, New York. The author prefaced the article by informing readers while the names in the article had changed, all the events were true. The cover story was such a hit; it spawned a motion picture "Saturday Night Fever" starring John Travolta, a motion picture which revolutionized a new dance craze: disco.

It was only years later that Mr. Cohn would admit the magazine’s central character was merely a composite based on youths he knew in London at the time.

On September 28, 1980, Washington Post published a chilling account of an eight-year old heroin addict named ``Jimmy’’ living in a furnished room in Southeast Washington, written by Janet Cooke.

Cooke’s expose earned the paper a Pulitzer Prize. But after a storm of heavy questioning from an army of skeptics over the details of the story, Cooke acknowledged there was no such boy ``Jimmy’’; she made up the story, including fabricating credentials on her resume. Embarrassed, the Washington Post returned the Pulitzer.

Most recently, The New York Times (in 2003) was the subject of some embarrassment of their own, when Jayson Blair pulled off a whole series of hoaxes when fraud was found in at least 36 of his published articles. Mr. Blair was also found to have falsified expense reports, and fictionalized an interview with the father of Jessica Lynch, a POW rescued during the second Gulf War in 2003.

The Times’ executive editor at the time, Howell Raines, praised Mr. Blair for his great ``shoe-leather reporting’’ for his stories on the snipers who were terrorizing Washington D.C., stories which were later found to be filled with manufactured details. 

During a 3 ½ year period, The Times had published 50 corrections in which Blair had a byline.

Blair resigned from the Times in May, 2003.

So during the next few days as news media begins to unravel the bizarre details of Richard Heene and his ``balloon hoax'', it should be remembered the media itself has been the center of its own hoaxes, whether intentionally or through no fault of their own.

 -Bill Lucey
[email protected]

 

Comments

[E. Levine]

Interesting article, except that Jessica Lynch was never a POW, it was actually a publicity stunt meant to garner support for the war. She write all about it in her memoir. She was taken CARE OF by the Iraqis, but the military dispatched a "rescue team" to help support their made-up story about Lynch being an injured prisoner of war, when in actuality she was being well tended to in an Iraqi hospital.

[E. Levine]

Whoops, of course I mean to write "She wrote all about it . . ."

Also, incidentally, Pat Tillman was one of the soldiers dispatched with the "rescue mission", and he had suspected it was a publicity stunt. The military used Tillman to glorify the war, and make the military seem like the hero. To create a fictional situation by unjustly vilifying the 'enemy' and lying to the American public is unconscionable, and has given the military a bad reputation, along with various other problems with bad behavior by our troops that I won't get into.

[JS Huntlands]

It is said that JS Huntlands author of the 'Nick Twisted Minds (Domestic Violence) series and the 'Me and My Best Friend (Children's interactive books) series is to be in the top 50 up-coming authors......

Media only:
For a free copy for your review please email me

[kelly mittong]

Weekly World Mews Breaking Story-Western Mew York
In a brazen CopyKat attempt to monopolize on the ongoing Balloon Boy Saga that is capturing headlines around the world
this week, a media hungry Siamese Kat contacted the Weekly World Mews to report that his two month old kitten
Stubby Marie had just floated out the bathroom window in an experimental "No PeeYew" battery operated litter box, and
was last seen gaining altitude and soaring above the treetops in the small village of Wheelsvile, Mew York.
He stated that he had been alerted to the tragedy by the frantic mewing of Stubby Marie, but by the time he got to
the bathroom, the kitty litter box, designated as the "NPY-1" by its creator Julius Meezer (Stubby's father), had already
sailed over the head of Slash, the backyard dog and was headed for the ionosphere. The "NPY-1" allegedly utilizes a battery
operated induction style overhead fan driven ventilation system in a closed compartment "PrivacyPlus" litter containment
system with motion sensor self actuating in/out kitty doors. Julius Meezer has stated that the experimental comfort station
was still in development stage and that all kittens had been warned against the usage of the "NPY-1" until the automatic
fan speed adjustment was installed and a glitch in the door sensor panel was worked out. Meezer theorizes that Stubby
Marie must have gotten stuck in the box when the door wouldn't open, and that lift from the muffin fan caused the comfort
station to rise from its corner in the bathroom and fly out the open window. Weekly World Mews staff immediately
contacted Slash, the backyard dog for confirmation of his claim and he denied that the event ever occurred, and that he
would know because he has been on constant duty at his station for the last 4 years, and nothing gets past him, certainly
not a flying kat box. He stated that he believes that the Siamese kat was perpetrating a hoax or publicity stunt in an
attempt to gain notoriety. Slash, the backyard dog also related that Julius Meezer aka, The Empurror of Mew York will do
anything to get attention, and believes it has something to do with his past history of Catnip abuse and the 15 minutes of
fame he received in a recent Weekly World Mews front page story exposing the infamous Rat Boy.
A WWM staffer returned the call to Mr. Meezer today and informed him that we had just spoken to Slash, the backyard dog
and that he had vehemently denied that the incident had taken place. Our reporter pressed him for the truth on the matter
of the kitten flight, the existence of the "NPY-1" and his past history of catnip abuse, as alleged by Slash, the backyard dog.
After the question there was a brief pause on his end of the phone line, the sound of claws scratching on furniture and Julius
Meezer replied in a rather huffy tone, "Never Mind" and hung up on the reporter. Weekly World Mews commends Slash, the
backyard dog and our fact checking staff for preventing what could have become a time consuming and costly waste of
emergency resources and emotions by rescue personnel on a vital mission to save a kitten that didn't even lose a mitten,
much less fly out the window in a nonexistent kitty box. Shame on you Julius Meezer!

[JB]

One of the best phony news stories comes from H.L. Mencken's Newspaper Days. A Baltimore Herald reporter made up an account of a man getting a terrifying shock when his umbrella became entangled with a new type of electric street light. The story created an uproar when it was revealed to be a hoax. The Herald ran numerous corrections and ultimately settled a libel suit with the electric company. Of course, if rained the day before the settlement was to be finalized. And while lifting his umbrella to clear the way for a passerby, a pedestrian received a shock from an overhead streetlight that knocked him dead cold.

[KindaGamey]

Abel Raises Cain... a fantastic documentary about hoaxing the media:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/56337/abel-raises-cain

[Michael Walsh]

Your mention of the 1875 Chicago theater fire hoax is interesting, since 28 years later the Iroquis Theater Fire in Chicago took 571 lives, due to a lack of fireproof curtains, inadequate exits, and other failures. The problem with the hoax is that it got all the attention and not the fire safety issues it was supposed to point out. As usual, honesty is the best policy

[gratis cat]

Illinois residents fall for a "buried treasure" prank that was planted 50 years earlier. Longest Time-Delayed Prank in History

[roycecedric]

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