Fox News and the Ham Sandwich

Thank you David Strom for sending us this story about Fox News falling for a parody of a news story about a ham sandwich incident in a middle school in Maine.

From Think Progress:

    …The backstory: Last week in the town of Lewiston, Maine, a group of Somalian Muslim middle school students were the subject of a cruel prank when their peers placed a ham steak next to them in order to personally offend the students. School officials filed a report because the students considered the act to be a hate/bias crime.

    This actual story was then spoofed by a parody site called Associated Content, which made up quotes and details, such as the school”™s intention to “create an anti-ham “˜response plan.”™”…

Fox & Friends subsequently picked up the spoof story and reported it as news, or should we say, mocked what they thought was the news. Here’s the video:

More links of interest:

Article by Paul Gerke on Associated Content about Associated Content’s reaction to the incident. (Unfortunately, the original parody by Nicholas Plagman, a member of the site since September of 2006, appears to now be blocked by Associated Content.)

Sun Journal (Lewiston, Maine) article: “Ham report stirs ‘mess'”

News Bloggers story

Think Progress story

The Mind of a Madman story