Submitted by Uwe Wolff, July 25, 2008:
Tom Kummer was a “journalist” living in L.A. who came up with the most incredible celebrity interviews for German magazines. He was a star and even the most serious papers were after him to publish his interviews. Only — he faked them all. After this was revealed and he was busted, he tagged his doings as “borderline journalism”. Not bad, he?
This was years ago and it caused an earthquake in the German media scene. One editor-in-chief lost his job, others had to go as well.
Now, a lifestyle magazine from Berlin called Dummy published a story on faker Tom Kummer, still living in L.A. and surviving as a paddle tennis trainer. The article was about a night out with Bruce Willis, Gwyneth Paltrow and Tom Kummer who introduced the author to the celebrities. Nice article, very nice. Only, it was fake and the media went for it again.
The editor-in-chief of Dummy, who wrote the piece, declared in a blog, that he never went to L.A., never met Tom Kummer and never had a night out with Willis and Paltrow. The fake story on a faker was eagerly lapped up by other media.
Link: Medienlese
image: blog.dummy-magazin.de