Last week quite a few papers ran this story:
NON-SMOKERS NEED NOT APPLY
BERLIN -- The owner of a small German computer company has fired three non-smoking workers because they were threatening to push demands for a smoke-free environment.
The manager of the 10-member IT company in Buesum, named Thomas J., told the Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper he had fired the trio because their non-smoking was causing disruptions.
"I can't be bothered with trouble-makers," Thomas said. "We're on the phone all the time and it's just easier to work while smoking. Everyone picks on smokers these days. It's time for revenge. I'm only going to hire smokers from now on."
Turns out,
the story was a hoax. Stephanie Lamprecht, the reporter whose name appeared on the byline, said that her source -- some guy named Thomas Joschko -- just made it up: "He said it was a joke and worth the trouble. He said he's a chain-smoker himself and said he was tired of smokers being hassled so much."
From what I understand, it's not clear that Thomas Joschko even owns a business. He's just a guy who picked up a phone and told a reporter a wild story, trusting that the reporter would do minimal fact checking before running it.
This was the same modus operandi of
Joseph Mulhattan, one of the most prolific hoaxers in America at the end of the nineteenth century. He would invent bizarre stories and wire them to papers, which would invariably print them. It's nice to see that the same tricks still work.
Comments
Are there legal consequences to pulling one over on a publication, printed or electronic?
Assuming that you're not engaging in fraud (trying to make money fraudulently), so far as I know, it isn't illegal to "pull one over" on the press. I say this as a person who has been involved in a number of media hoaxes which have gotten national attention, not as an attorney (which I'm not) so take that into consideration.
If you think about it, politicians lie to reporters all the time; if it was illegal, you'd expect that at least one of them would have been taken to court over it by now.
"The more I learn about the news media, [the] less I believe that any ethics or professionalism are ever involved in news reporting."
I can't say ethics are NEVER involved in news reporting, but, based on some of the stories I've been personally involved with, the motto seems to be "Never let the facts get in the way of a good story."