Media Pranks - The Art of the Prank

November 2, 2007January 15, 2019

Putting the Mercy back in Mercenary

From ChicagoIndyMedia.org, October 31, 2007:

New York – With all of the news about Blackwater USA”s problems, it wasn”t a surprise that a fake story about the company creating a “Department of Corporate Integrity” would make it on to several valid news sites.

CBS News and Politico.com were among the victims of the fraud, reportedly perpetuated by Code Pink, according to Politico, which posted a correction today. CBS reprinted a Politico story on its site.

“In this business, you sometimes come across news items and think, “˜You couldn”t make that stuff up.” Well, sometimes you can,” Politico reported in its note. “Code Pink today pulled off a hoax that pulled in Politico and a number of other news outlets when it ginned up a fake release, saying that Blackwater USA was creating a new “˜Department of Corporate Integrity” that would put the “˜mercy back in mercenary.” That should have been a tip off.” “We do some silly things, but we didn”t do that,” Anne Tyrrell, a spokesperson for Blackwater USA, told Politico.

“We got a lot of international press,” said Code Pink’s Desiree Fairooz, most recently in the news for confronting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with fake blood on her hands. “It was a spoof.”

October 9, 2007January 15, 2019

Christof Schlingensief: Bitte Liebt Osterreich

Submitted by Peter Schlager:

Christoph Schlingensief made his own contribution to the 2000 Vienna International Festival by organising the reality TV event Please Love Austria:

In 2000, German director and activist Christof Schlingensief created a fake public TV-show. After the formation of the Austrian right wing coalition, Schlingensief built a public “container” show called Please Love Austria so people could (similar to the Big Brother reality TV show) vote for which of the “contained” immigrants should stay and which should go. Schlingensief was then accused by the Austrian right wing party of racism. He was publicly offended with the words “You Artist!”

For more about this performance, visit schlingensief.com, click on Works, then Performance, then select Bitte Liebt Osterreich (2000) from the pull down menu.

September 26, 2007January 15, 2019

Breaking News: Fox News Falls for Fake Clinton Letter

Editor’s Note: The Fox News Corporation is jumping all over a letter demanding that restaurant Osso Buco’s Albanian owner Nino Selimaj remove a photo featuring himself with Chelsea Clinton which has adorned the restaurant for years. Well… the letter is a fake. They just haven’t realized it yet. Below is an article posted today on FOXNews.com.

“It’s easy enough to fake letters from public offices,” says prankster and satirist Joey Skaggs. As evidence, check out the Brooklyn Bridge Lottery hoax. In 1992, Skaggs faked an inter-office memo from then Mayor David Dinkins, purporting that the City was planning a lottery to sell the Brooklyn Bridge. In addition to a million dollar prize, the winner would have the bridge named after him or her for five years. The proceeds would help to pay for the restoration of the decaying bridge.

New York Restaurant Owner ‘Shocked’ Over Ex-President Clinton’s Demands to Remove Chelsea Photo
September 26, 2007
by Catherine Donaldson-Evans
FOXNews.com

NEW YORK “” The owner of a New York City restaurant is “heartbroken” over a letter he received from former President Bill Clinton’s lawyer asking that a photograph of daughter Chelsea be removed from his eatery “” or face legal action.

The photo, taken of the former first daughter with Osso Buco owner Nino Selimaj, has been on display in the window of the Greenwich Village haunt for about five years, the restaurateur said. Continue reading “Breaking News: Fox News Falls for Fake Clinton Letter”

August 21, 2007January 15, 2019

Spaced Out

Submitted by Mike Ibanez:

Space cadets taken in by TV hoax
BBC
December 17, 2005

Three contestants have spoken of their disbelief after being fooled into thinking they went into space for the UK reality show Space Cadets. The three believed they had blasted off from a cosmonaut training camp in Russia, but were in fact in a fake spaceship in a warehouse in Suffolk.

They cheered up when told they had each won £25,000 ($44,300).

But one contestant, teaching assistant Keri Hasset from Birmingham, said she was “heartbroken” by the prank.

Fake ceremony

“When I thought we were coming back to Earth I was planning my speech. I was going to say it had been my childhood dream. Now I’m a little bit heartbroken,” she said.

Ms Hasset, plasterer Paul French, 26 from Bristol, and footballer/recruitment consultant Billy Jackson, 25, from Kent, had suspicions they were being tricked when they had to hold a ceremony for a celebrity Russian dog called Mr Bimby on the spaceship. Continue reading “Spaced Out”

August 21, 2007January 15, 2019

Belgian TV Network Hoax

Submitted by Mike Ibanez:

Viewers fooled by ‘Belgium split’
BBC News
December 14, 2006

Belgians reacted with widespread alarm to news that their country had been split in two – before finding out they had been spoofed. The Belgian public television station RTBF ran a bogus report saying the Dutch-speaking half of the nation had declared independence.

Later it said Wednesday night’s programme was meant to stir up debate.

It appears to have succeeded. Thousands of people made panicked calls to the station and politicians complained.

“It’s very bad Orson Welles, in very poor taste,” said a spokesman for Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, referring to the famous director’s 1938 radio adaptation of War of the Worlds. That spoof fooled many Americans into believing Martians had invaded.

“In the current context, it’s irresponsible for a public television channel to announce the end of Belgium as a reality presented by genuine journalists,” he added. Continue reading “Belgian TV Network Hoax”