Article Journalism
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A Neglected Anniversary
Type: Journalistic Hoax. Summary: Text of an article detailing a false history of the bathtub. What follows is the complete text of Henry L. Mencken’s article “A Neglected Anniversary,” published in the New York Evening Mail on December 28, 1917. The article presents a false history of the bathtub. Details…
Central Park Zoo Escape
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: Panic ensued after the New York Herald reported that wild animals had escaped from the New York City Zoo. “Another Awful Calamity. The Intellectual Department of The New York Herald Let Loose Upon the Public.” Front cover of the Daily Graphic (Nov. 13, 1874), mocking the…
Empire City Massacre
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: Mark Twain invented a tale of a gruesome murder in order to embarrass the San Francisco newspapers. In 1863 San Francisco newspapers were spilling a lot of ink lambasting mining ventures that were cooking their books, and these same papers were encouraging investors to put their…
Fake News Comedy Shows
Type: Satire. Summary: A brief history of “fake news” comedy shows. Posted by: Elliot Feldman Before Jon Stewart While “The Daily Show” hits its targets more often than not, the line between “fake news” and real news seems to be blurring a bit in recent months. Show host Jon Stewart’s…
Flemish Secession Hoax
Type: Television News Hoax. Summary: In 2006, on a Belgian TV station news broadcast, it was announced that Flanders, the Dutch-speaking half of the country, had seceded from the country. Thirty minutes into the news bulletin, only after the station’s phonelines were swamped, it was revealed to be a hoax.…
Great Wall of China Hoax
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: In 1899 four Denver newspapers falsely reported that the Great Wall of China was going to be torn down. A rumor subsequently emerged suggesting that this hoax provoked the Boxer Rebellion in China. From the Lima News. August 4, 1899. Caption reads: “Great Wall of China…
Hippo Eats Dwarf
Type: Urban Legend. Summary: Newspapers report the accidental swallowing of a circus dwarf by a hippo. HOAX HAIKUDwarf-eating hippo travels all around the world Devouring midgets (by Exactor) A weirder story circulates by newspaper called “Dwarf eats hippo!” (by J)Submit a haiku For the past decade versions of the following…
History of the Bathtub
Type: Hoax. Summary: A widely circulated tale claimed that Americans were initially reluctant to use bathtubs when they were introduced during the mid-nineteenth century. On December 28, 1917 the journalist Henry L. Mencken published an article in the New York Evening Mail titled “A Neglected Anniversary.” It described the curious…
Hitler Diaries
Type: Forgery. Summary: A fake set of diaries, supposedly written by Adolf Hitler, became one of the most costly forgeries in history. Gerd Heidemann (right) and Wolf Hess (left), son of Nazi leader Rudolf Hess, pose with a volume of the Hitler diaries. April, 1983. Table of Contents The Beginning:…
Jack Kelley
Type: Rogue Reporter. Summary: In 2004, it was uncovered that Jack Kelley, one of USA Today’s most respected reporters, a five-time Pulitzer Prize nominee, had been fabricating major news stories at least since 1991. Posted by: Elliot Feldman In 2004 it was uncovered that Jack Kelley, one of USA Today’s…
Joseph Mulhattan
Type: Media Hoaxer. Summary: During the late nineteenth century, Mulhattan was widely known for his love of hoaxing newspapers. Joseph MulhattanDuring the 1870s and 1880s Joseph Mulhattan was perhaps the most famous hoaxer in America. He was a traveling salesman, not a reporter, but he was notorious for repeatedly succeeding…
Killer Hawk of Chicago
Type: Hoax that is not a hoax. Summary: As Chicagoans excitedly followed reports of a hawk loose in the downtown area, newspapers began to suspect they may have been hoaxed. “The pirate of the air perched on the roof of the Art institute just after he had killed and was…
Locals - 19th Century Newspaper Hoaxes
The creation of the penny press during the 1830s completely changed the character of the news business. The older six-penny papers had confined themselves to business and political news, but the penny papers discovered that there was a huge market for local news: stories about neighborhood crimes, police reports, social…
Lovenstein Institute IQ Report
In July 2001 an e-mail began to circulate claiming that the Lovenstein Institute, a think-tank based in Scranton, Pennsylvania, had conducted research into the IQ of all the Presidents of the past 50 years and concluded that George W. Bush ranked at the bottom, with an IQ of only 91.…
Man Flies By Own Lung Power
Type: April Fool’s Day Hoax. Summary: A widely printed photograph showed a man flying by means of a device powered by the breath of his lungs. April Fool’s Day Content in the Museum of HoaxesTop 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes—The Origin of April Fool’s Day—April Fool’s Hoaxes by Year1698 |…
Melancholy Reflections
Type: Exposé of a journalistic hoax. Summary: Text of an article in which H.L. Mencken admitted inventing a false history of the bathtub. What follows is the complete text of Henry L. Mencken’s article “Melancholy Reflections,” published in the Chicago Tribune on May 23, 1926. In the article, Mencken admits…
Monkey Fishing
Type: Hoax. Summary: Slate.com reporter describes the sport of fishing for monkeys. Jay Forman wrote an occasional “Vice” column for the online magazine Slate.com. It provided him with a mainstream outlet to detail some of the bizarre activities he had engaged in or witnessed over the years. For instance, one…
Moving the Body
Type: Technique of photo fakery. Summary: Photographers can create misleading images by arranging the elements in a scene. Photo fakery usually involves the use of darkroom tricks or image-manipulation software in order to alter a photograph. However, fakery can also be achieved simply by posing people or objects in artificial…
New York Evening Graphic and Composographs
Type: Inventing the News. Summary: The story of publisher Bernarr MacFadden and The New York Evening Graphic, America’s first tabloid. Posted by: Elliot Feldman Although publisher Bernarr MacFadden’s newspaper, The New York Evening Graphic, only lasted a few years, its impact on mass media is still felt today, for better…
Paulding County Hyena
On February 6, 1858 readers of the Cleveland Plain Dealer read the following shocking news: A HYENA LOOSE IN PAULDING COUNTY. — On Wednesday morning last, between three and four o’clock, a striped hyena broke loose from his cage in the barn of Mr. Eli Watson, a few miles west…
Petrified Man
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: A newspaper article published in 1862 described the discovery of a petrified human body. The following news report appeared in the Territorial Enterprise, Virginia City, Nevada’s leading newspaper, on October 4, 1862: A petrified man was found some time ago in the mountains south of Gravelly…
Railways and Revolvers in Georgia
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: A London newspaper provoked trans-Atlantic controversy when it reported that a series of brutal killings had occurred on a Georgia train. American society has long had a reputation for violence. Therefore, when in 1856 the London Times received a letter from an Englishman living in America…
Rathergate
On Sept. 8 Dan Rather reported on 60 Minutes that CBS had obtained documents showing that President Bush had disobeyed orders while serving in the National Guard and had then used his family’s influence in order to cover up his poor service record. The documents allegedly came from the files…
Retractable Capitol Dome
Type: Satire Mistaken as News Summary: A Beijing newspaper mistakenly reported that the U.S. Congress was demanding the installation of a retractable Capitol dome. On June 3, 2002, the Beijing Evening News scooped its competitors with a shocking story from America: the U.S. Congress was threatening to leave Washington DC…
Silence Dogood
Type: False Identity. Summary: Sixteen-year-old Benjamin Franklin pretended to be a middle-aged widow named Silence Dogood. View the Discussion Page for this topic. In 1722 a series of letters appeared in the New-England Courant written by a middle-aged widow named Silence Dogood. The letters poked fun at various aspects of…
Solar Armor
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: An article published in 1874 described a man who invented “solar armor,” which caused him to freeze to death in the middle of a Nevada desert during the Summer. As anyone who has ever been to Nevada during the summer knows, its deserts can become scorchingly…
Supplement to the Boston Independent Chronicle
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: A false tale of brutal British military tactics circulated during the American Revolution. In 1782 a shocking letter was printed in the Supplement to the Boston Independent Chronicle. It alleged that Indian warriors were sending hundreds of American scalps as war trophies to British royalty and…
Traveling Stones of Pahranagat Valley
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: In 1867 Nevada journalist Dan De Quille described some stones with a curious property—whenever separated from each other they spontaneously moved back together. On October 26, 1867 a story appeared in Nevada’s Territorial Enterprise newspaper describing some unusual stones recently found in the Pahranagat Valley of…
Weekly World News
Type: Parody. Summary: The life and death of satirical tabloid “The Weekly World News.” Posted by: Elliot Feldman The Death of the Weekly World News “The Weekly World News” was launched almost as an afterthought. It was a news-of-the-weird offshoot of “The National Enquirer.” In 1979, when The Enquirer and…
Whatever Happened to Buckwheat
Type: Hoax. Summary: Man falsely claims to be the actor who played Buckwheat in the Our Gang film series. Buckwheat, as soon on Our GangMany child stars achieve success and stability as adults, but occasionally they go from stardom to the opposite extreme of anonymity and failure, as if dragged…
Wild Animal Hoax - Part 1
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: Complete text of the “wild animal hoax” published by the New York Herald in 1874. On November 9, 1874 the New York Herald published an article claiming that the animals had escaped from their cages in the New York zoo and were rampaging through the city.…
Wild Animal Hoax - Part 2
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: Continuation of the complete text of the “wild animal hoax” published by the New York Herald in 1874. (Continued from Wild Animal Hoax - Part 1.) On November 9, 1874 the New York Herald published an article claiming that the animals had escaped from their cages…
Winsted Wild Man
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: Reports of a wild man loose in Winsted, Connecticut fanned mass hysteria. In August of 1895 New York City papers received a wire story about a naked, hairy man that was terrorizing townspeople in Winsted, Connecticut. Intrigued, the papers sent reporters up to Winsted to find…
Witch Trial at Mount Holly
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: In 1730 an American newspaper printed a detailed account of a fictitious witch trial. On October 22, 1730 an article appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette describing a witch trial that had recently been held in Mount Holly near Burlington, New Jersey. (To read the full text…
Witch Trial at Mount Holly - Text
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: The complete text of a 1730 newspaper article describing a witch trial that supposedly occurred in New Jersey. What follows is the complete text of the “Witch Trial at Mount Holly” hoax, believed to have been written by Benjamin Franklin. It was published in the Pennsylvania…
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There are 2 subcategories for this categoryArticles in category "Journalism":
There are 35 articles for this category
A Neglected Anniversary
Type: Journalistic Hoax. Summary: Text of an article detailing a false history of the bathtub. What follows is the complete text of Henry L. Mencken’s article “A Neglected Anniversary,” published in the New York Evening Mail on December 28, 1917. The article presents a false history of the bathtub. Details…
Central Park Zoo Escape
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: Panic ensued after the New York Herald reported that wild animals had escaped from the New York City Zoo. “Another Awful Calamity. The Intellectual Department of The New York Herald Let Loose Upon the Public.” Front cover of the Daily Graphic (Nov. 13, 1874), mocking the…
Empire City Massacre
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: Mark Twain invented a tale of a gruesome murder in order to embarrass the San Francisco newspapers. In 1863 San Francisco newspapers were spilling a lot of ink lambasting mining ventures that were cooking their books, and these same papers were encouraging investors to put their…
Fake News Comedy Shows
Type: Satire. Summary: A brief history of “fake news” comedy shows. Posted by: Elliot Feldman Before Jon Stewart While “The Daily Show” hits its targets more often than not, the line between “fake news” and real news seems to be blurring a bit in recent months. Show host Jon Stewart’s…
Flemish Secession Hoax
Type: Television News Hoax. Summary: In 2006, on a Belgian TV station news broadcast, it was announced that Flanders, the Dutch-speaking half of the country, had seceded from the country. Thirty minutes into the news bulletin, only after the station’s phonelines were swamped, it was revealed to be a hoax.…
Great Wall of China Hoax
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: In 1899 four Denver newspapers falsely reported that the Great Wall of China was going to be torn down. A rumor subsequently emerged suggesting that this hoax provoked the Boxer Rebellion in China. From the Lima News. August 4, 1899. Caption reads: “Great Wall of China…
Hippo Eats Dwarf
Type: Urban Legend. Summary: Newspapers report the accidental swallowing of a circus dwarf by a hippo. HOAX HAIKUDwarf-eating hippo travels all around the world Devouring midgets (by Exactor) A weirder story circulates by newspaper called “Dwarf eats hippo!” (by J)Submit a haiku For the past decade versions of the following…
History of the Bathtub
Type: Hoax. Summary: A widely circulated tale claimed that Americans were initially reluctant to use bathtubs when they were introduced during the mid-nineteenth century. On December 28, 1917 the journalist Henry L. Mencken published an article in the New York Evening Mail titled “A Neglected Anniversary.” It described the curious…
Hitler Diaries
Type: Forgery. Summary: A fake set of diaries, supposedly written by Adolf Hitler, became one of the most costly forgeries in history. Gerd Heidemann (right) and Wolf Hess (left), son of Nazi leader Rudolf Hess, pose with a volume of the Hitler diaries. April, 1983. Table of Contents The Beginning:…
Jack Kelley
Type: Rogue Reporter. Summary: In 2004, it was uncovered that Jack Kelley, one of USA Today’s most respected reporters, a five-time Pulitzer Prize nominee, had been fabricating major news stories at least since 1991. Posted by: Elliot Feldman In 2004 it was uncovered that Jack Kelley, one of USA Today’s…
Joseph Mulhattan
Type: Media Hoaxer. Summary: During the late nineteenth century, Mulhattan was widely known for his love of hoaxing newspapers. Joseph MulhattanDuring the 1870s and 1880s Joseph Mulhattan was perhaps the most famous hoaxer in America. He was a traveling salesman, not a reporter, but he was notorious for repeatedly succeeding…
Killer Hawk of Chicago
Type: Hoax that is not a hoax. Summary: As Chicagoans excitedly followed reports of a hawk loose in the downtown area, newspapers began to suspect they may have been hoaxed. “The pirate of the air perched on the roof of the Art institute just after he had killed and was…
Locals - 19th Century Newspaper Hoaxes
The creation of the penny press during the 1830s completely changed the character of the news business. The older six-penny papers had confined themselves to business and political news, but the penny papers discovered that there was a huge market for local news: stories about neighborhood crimes, police reports, social…
Lovenstein Institute IQ Report
In July 2001 an e-mail began to circulate claiming that the Lovenstein Institute, a think-tank based in Scranton, Pennsylvania, had conducted research into the IQ of all the Presidents of the past 50 years and concluded that George W. Bush ranked at the bottom, with an IQ of only 91.…
Man Flies By Own Lung Power
Type: April Fool’s Day Hoax. Summary: A widely printed photograph showed a man flying by means of a device powered by the breath of his lungs. April Fool’s Day Content in the Museum of HoaxesTop 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes—The Origin of April Fool’s Day—April Fool’s Hoaxes by Year1698 |…
Melancholy Reflections
Type: Exposé of a journalistic hoax. Summary: Text of an article in which H.L. Mencken admitted inventing a false history of the bathtub. What follows is the complete text of Henry L. Mencken’s article “Melancholy Reflections,” published in the Chicago Tribune on May 23, 1926. In the article, Mencken admits…
Monkey Fishing
Type: Hoax. Summary: Slate.com reporter describes the sport of fishing for monkeys. Jay Forman wrote an occasional “Vice” column for the online magazine Slate.com. It provided him with a mainstream outlet to detail some of the bizarre activities he had engaged in or witnessed over the years. For instance, one…
Moving the Body
Type: Technique of photo fakery. Summary: Photographers can create misleading images by arranging the elements in a scene. Photo fakery usually involves the use of darkroom tricks or image-manipulation software in order to alter a photograph. However, fakery can also be achieved simply by posing people or objects in artificial…
New York Evening Graphic and Composographs
Type: Inventing the News. Summary: The story of publisher Bernarr MacFadden and The New York Evening Graphic, America’s first tabloid. Posted by: Elliot Feldman Although publisher Bernarr MacFadden’s newspaper, The New York Evening Graphic, only lasted a few years, its impact on mass media is still felt today, for better…
Paulding County Hyena
On February 6, 1858 readers of the Cleveland Plain Dealer read the following shocking news: A HYENA LOOSE IN PAULDING COUNTY. — On Wednesday morning last, between three and four o’clock, a striped hyena broke loose from his cage in the barn of Mr. Eli Watson, a few miles west…
Petrified Man
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: A newspaper article published in 1862 described the discovery of a petrified human body. The following news report appeared in the Territorial Enterprise, Virginia City, Nevada’s leading newspaper, on October 4, 1862: A petrified man was found some time ago in the mountains south of Gravelly…
Railways and Revolvers in Georgia
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: A London newspaper provoked trans-Atlantic controversy when it reported that a series of brutal killings had occurred on a Georgia train. American society has long had a reputation for violence. Therefore, when in 1856 the London Times received a letter from an Englishman living in America…
Rathergate
On Sept. 8 Dan Rather reported on 60 Minutes that CBS had obtained documents showing that President Bush had disobeyed orders while serving in the National Guard and had then used his family’s influence in order to cover up his poor service record. The documents allegedly came from the files…
Retractable Capitol Dome
Type: Satire Mistaken as News Summary: A Beijing newspaper mistakenly reported that the U.S. Congress was demanding the installation of a retractable Capitol dome. On June 3, 2002, the Beijing Evening News scooped its competitors with a shocking story from America: the U.S. Congress was threatening to leave Washington DC…
Silence Dogood
Type: False Identity. Summary: Sixteen-year-old Benjamin Franklin pretended to be a middle-aged widow named Silence Dogood. View the Discussion Page for this topic. In 1722 a series of letters appeared in the New-England Courant written by a middle-aged widow named Silence Dogood. The letters poked fun at various aspects of…
Solar Armor
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: An article published in 1874 described a man who invented “solar armor,” which caused him to freeze to death in the middle of a Nevada desert during the Summer. As anyone who has ever been to Nevada during the summer knows, its deserts can become scorchingly…
Supplement to the Boston Independent Chronicle
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: A false tale of brutal British military tactics circulated during the American Revolution. In 1782 a shocking letter was printed in the Supplement to the Boston Independent Chronicle. It alleged that Indian warriors were sending hundreds of American scalps as war trophies to British royalty and…
Traveling Stones of Pahranagat Valley
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: In 1867 Nevada journalist Dan De Quille described some stones with a curious property—whenever separated from each other they spontaneously moved back together. On October 26, 1867 a story appeared in Nevada’s Territorial Enterprise newspaper describing some unusual stones recently found in the Pahranagat Valley of…
Weekly World News
Type: Parody. Summary: The life and death of satirical tabloid “The Weekly World News.” Posted by: Elliot Feldman The Death of the Weekly World News “The Weekly World News” was launched almost as an afterthought. It was a news-of-the-weird offshoot of “The National Enquirer.” In 1979, when The Enquirer and…
Whatever Happened to Buckwheat
Type: Hoax. Summary: Man falsely claims to be the actor who played Buckwheat in the Our Gang film series. Buckwheat, as soon on Our GangMany child stars achieve success and stability as adults, but occasionally they go from stardom to the opposite extreme of anonymity and failure, as if dragged…
Wild Animal Hoax - Part 1
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: Complete text of the “wild animal hoax” published by the New York Herald in 1874. On November 9, 1874 the New York Herald published an article claiming that the animals had escaped from their cages in the New York zoo and were rampaging through the city.…
Wild Animal Hoax - Part 2
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: Continuation of the complete text of the “wild animal hoax” published by the New York Herald in 1874. (Continued from Wild Animal Hoax - Part 1.) On November 9, 1874 the New York Herald published an article claiming that the animals had escaped from their cages…
Winsted Wild Man
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: Reports of a wild man loose in Winsted, Connecticut fanned mass hysteria. In August of 1895 New York City papers received a wire story about a naked, hairy man that was terrorizing townspeople in Winsted, Connecticut. Intrigued, the papers sent reporters up to Winsted to find…
Witch Trial at Mount Holly
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: In 1730 an American newspaper printed a detailed account of a fictitious witch trial. On October 22, 1730 an article appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette describing a witch trial that had recently been held in Mount Holly near Burlington, New Jersey. (To read the full text…
Witch Trial at Mount Holly - Text
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: The complete text of a 1730 newspaper article describing a witch trial that supposedly occurred in New Jersey. What follows is the complete text of the “Witch Trial at Mount Holly” hoax, believed to have been written by Benjamin Franklin. It was published in the Pennsylvania…