"I actually want to live in a world where Jonah [Lehrer] should get another chance, even though I really understand that he made some really stupid mistakes," Jon Ronson, author of So You've Been Publicly Shamed, tells New York magazine. Lehrer's next book, The Smarter Screen, is available for preorder from Amazon.…
Sad Old Literary Man Angry About His Decline (and Jonathan Franzen)
Gordon Lish, for those of you who do not follow literary gossip, was a famous editor in the 1970s and 1980s. Nowadays, he is primarily remembered as Raymond Carver's editor, whose short stories he shaved down to knife-edge minimalism. For no apparent reason at all, Newsweek just profiled Lish. He's a bit of a hater,…
Mike Barnicle—who is a confirmed fabricator and plagiarist, as well as being a toxic race-baiter and a suck-up to a psychopathic murderer—wants to share the word that this week's trouble at the New York Times is "an embarrassment to journalism."
Famous Fraud Stephen Glass Is Officially too Crooked to Be a Lawyer
In a definitive work of media criticism, the California Supreme Court unanimously today ruled that Stephen Glass, notorious for fabricating stories for the New Republic and other magazines as a young writer in the '90s, is unfit for admission to the state bar. The court's 33-page decision is a comprehensive and…
Sign Language Interpreter at Mandela's Memorial a "Fake"
The man providing sign language interpretations during Nelson Mandela's memorial on Tuesday was a "fake," according to the national director of the Deaf Federation of South Africa and at least two other experts.
The office of Senator Ted Cruz told the New York Times that the Obamacare foe gets his own health coverage—through his wife's job at Goldman Sachs—"at no cost to the taxpayer." Experts estimate the Cruz family plan gets a federal tax subsidy of about $8,500.
New York policy expert Michael Wolff believes you can take the subway "from Red Hook to Wall Street." (Also: the Guardian believes "sleaze balls" should be two words.)
Racist sports-team names really do divide us. Before ESPN's Rick Reilly stood up for using "Redskins" and denounced the current "wave of PC-ness," Sports Illustrated's Rick Reilly denounced "Redskins" as one of "the antiques of that old racism."
Hollywood Conservative Leader Turns Out to Be Holocaust Revisionist
Over the past five years, David Stein has made a name for himself as a leader for Hollywood's conservatives. As an operator for the popular website Republican Party Animals, he hosted right-wing congressmen and celebrities at parties, and he was a regular on conservative talk shows. But it turns out Stein had a…
Howard Kurtz's Shocking Revelation: He Can't Read
How does multi-platform conflict-machine Howard Kurtz crank out so much coverage, people wonder? Maybe it's easier to write a lot of media criticism if you don't read the media you're criticizing. So today Kurtz finds—for two different outlets—a dark shadow in the sunny coverage of NBA player Jason Collins' decision…
Picky Cheater Offers $600 For Solid "Masters Level History" Paper
Do you want to make $600 cash by Tuesday? Then get to work on this rich guy's "Masters Level History" papers. We are not talking about a cut-and-paste from Wikipedia here, this guy is a legitimate grad student who needs to learn about World War II by having you write his well-sourced academic papers. "I've done this…
Expert on losing money wonders how much money New York magazine is losing.
'It Makes Me Sick': Actress in Muhammed Movie Says She Was Deceived, Had No Idea It Was About Islam
The story of the Muhammed movie which sparked deadly protests in Libya and Egypt gets weirder. The actors who appeared in it had no idea they were starring in anti-Islam propaganda which depicts Muhammed as a child molester and thug. They were deceived by the film's director, believing they were appearing in a film…
Even Babies Can Tell You're Full of Shit
You know how you spend every minute of your waking life desperately afraid that you will be found out as a laughable fraud and all your accomplishments discovered to be built on a foundation of luck and lies? Well! As it turns out, even babies can tell how unbelievably full of shit you are.
Wyclef Jean's Corrupt Charity Is Still Very, Very Corrupt
Remember how Wyclef Jean promised to clean up his sham charity last year after it started raising $1 million a day in the wake of the earthquake in Haiti? Guess what.
Cement-and-Glue Butt Injection 'Doctor' Was a Job Creator
As part of their ongoing investigation into Oneal Ron Morris—the Floridian fake doctor accused of injecting "cement, 'Fix a Flat,' mineral oil and super glue" into people's butts—police have arrested Corey Alexander Eubank, Morris's alleged assistant. Now both are unemployed.
Cement-and-Glue Butt Injection 'Doctor' Has Unbelievable Curves
America's War on Fake Butts continues! Here are some police photos of 30-year-old Oneal Ron Morris, a not-doctor arrested by Miami Gardens, Florida police for allegedly giving women—and herself?—butt injections using a mixture of "cement, 'Fix a Flat,' mineral oil and super glue."
Alleged 'J.Lo Butt' Scam Artist Finally Arrested by the Feds
How many American butts had to develop "hard lumps, ripples, skin discolorations, and infections" before alleged, unauthorized butt enhancer Kimberly Smedley was arrested by federal agents last month? Perhaps we'll never know. But we'll definitely sleep more soundly knowing that America's butts are being protected…
Harvard Fraudster Returns to Jail for Dropping Another H-Bomb
The Talented Mr. Adam Wheeler—the "crypto-tendentious" literary beefcake convicted of larceny, identity theft, and fraud for scamming his way into Harvard—is back in jail for violating the terms of his probation. His mistake: repeating that old lie about being Harvard material. The Harvard Crimson reports:
Wikileaks Honors Steve Jobs with Fake HIV Report
There have been plenty of absurd tributes to Steve Jobs. But the most tone-deaf has got to be the one by Wikileaks, which last night tweeted a link to a faked copy of the former Apple CEO's positive "H.I.V. report." RIP, Steve!
