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International TV/Radio Stations Get Punked By Fake Air France Crash Footage
Is The 'Jon And Kate Plus Eight' Story The Future Of Journalism?

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miss_msry
06/21/09

In reply to International TV/Radio Stations Get Punked By Fake Air France Crash Footage
Stupid journalists.
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Guy Whitey Corngood
06/21/09

In reply to International TV/Radio Stations Get Punked By Fake Air France Crash Footage
I took some screenshots of the freighter sinking from the season 4 Lost finale, fooled a bunch of 4channers into thinking it was Somali pirate footage. And that was fucking MONTHS ago. What do I win?
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skahammer
06/22/09

@Guy Whitey Corngood: Huh, fooling 4channers. Now there's an activity guaranteed to make one question his life choices.
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ronniedobbs
06/21/09

In reply to International TV/Radio Stations Get Punked By Fake Air France Crash Footage
All I want is to read that everyone died instantly without suffering any pain, yet these stories are not forthcoming with those kinds of assuring details. I need to know that for the victims' sake of course, but also so I can add it to the pep-talk I give myself every time I fly.
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minou
06/21/09

@ronniedobbs: I can't remember the source -- I think it's around here somewhere -- but someone (an authority) noted that when a plane loses pressure, the passengers will pass out in well under a minute. During that time, some blessed bodily chemical reaction kicks in and all it feels like is falling asleep. I've been telling myself this for years, and I'm glad that it turns out to be true.

Those oxygen masks that drop from the ceiling are only there to make you feel safer. In reality you'd be "asleep" before you could get to it to put it on. So there's a good chance that the passengers on this flight felt a big bump -- like turbulence, and that was that. It's a little bit of comfort anyway.
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kneetoe
06/21/09

@minou: Oh, ok, here's that source, um, it looks like something from the Association of Travel Agents, in conjunction with the Airlines Are Safe Confederation. Yes, and what it says is that this breaking up thing never happens, but on the really rare occasion when it does, it's just like going to sleep.

God, I knew I read it somewhere.
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Weegee's bored
06/21/09

@minou: I think that suddenly being exposed to the equivalent of 500-mph winds probably makes the end pretty quick.
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badasscat
06/21/09

@minou: No, the oxygen masks are not only there to make you feel safer. There have been many cases where they have actually been used in pressurization incidents. Sheesh.
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minou
06/21/09

@badasscat: I'm sure you're right in less extreme cases. I misspoke in that I meant in this case -- a plane breaking up -- it's unlikely that you're gonna put the thing on, be conscious for the whole time, and live through the hell of the plane going down. It is my understanding that in these rare cases, it all happens too fast for the oxygen mask to make much difference, and that's for the best. But I am sure glad that you found the opportunity to gratuitously correct me. Sheesh.
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minou
06/21/09

@kneetoe: I think I read on this site that it was an Air France official or the like who cited that? Although I'm not sure the source matters, since I'll take those little comforts anywhere I can get them.
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minou
06/21/09

@Weegee's bored: One hopes.
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DrJimmy
06/21/09

In reply to International TV/Radio Stations Get Punked By Fake Air France Crash Footage
There's a handful of Bolivian and Dutch broadcasters who've just graded out as utter and complete Assholes.

Somebody tell 'em I said so.

So, Kamer: how does your complimenting these idiots in any way separate you from attached Assholery?
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Foster Kamer
06/21/09

@DrJimmy: It doesn't?
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VoxPopuli
06/01/09

In reply to Is The 'Jon And Kate Plus Eight' Story The Future Of Journalism?
Here's an Op-Ed proposal for the Times: How sending Jon + Kate to North Korea as punishment for its nuclear testing will bring Kim Jong Il's regime to its knees.

Though, I suspect that Kim rather likes Kate's hair since he rocks the semi-bouffant himself.
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Foster Kamer
06/01/09

@VoxPopuli: We could trade them for Lisa Ling's sister +1.
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minou
05/31/09

In reply to Is The 'Jon And Kate Plus Eight' Story The Future Of Journalism?
Why are all these people complaining about grammar and pageview-whoring when what we really need to talk more about is Kate's hair? This woman's hair perhaps the most powerful and concise statement on contemporary American culture and values that I have ever seen. It's stupendous, her hair. And tragic.
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Moff
05/31/09

@minou: As usual, you are the voice of reason.
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BxgrlJeri
05/31/09

In reply to Is The 'Jon And Kate Plus Eight' Story The Future Of Journalism?
I've asked this question before and I've even tried to google it but how do these people (and others, like Little People, Big World and WorkOut etc) GET a reality show. I mean who knows them and decides, this would look good on TV. Do they submit themselves to a station. I'm not clear on who finds them and how.
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TedSez
05/31/09

In reply to Is The 'Jon And Kate Plus Eight' Story The Future Of Journalism?
If this were the '80s, you would know Andy Borowitz as a sitcom writer who wrote for "Square Pegs" and "The Facts of Life," and especially as the guy who created "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. (And if you're wondering how someone can monetarily afford to spend his life as a print satirist, that's how.)

His screenplay Dinner for Schmucks is reportedly in production with Austin Powers / Meet the Parents director Jay Roach and stars Steve Carell and Paul Rudd. So, there's that, too.
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pfft
05/31/09

In reply to Is The 'Jon And Kate Plus Eight' Story The Future Of Journalism?
Speaking of "journalism", clicking on Borowitz's name reveals that his other headlines include

"Student ejected from national spelling bee for using spellcheck"

"Palin-Prejean alliance predicted in Book of Revelations"

"NBC to Produce Just One Episode of Jay Leno Show; Will Rerun It Until Someone Notices"

...and no record of any recent conference on the Minnesota Journalism school site.

[www.sjmc.umn.edu]

Looks like you should have had an extra coffee with brunch today. On the other hand, that this could have been taken seriously is a good (bad) sign of the desperate and flailing state of the media right now.
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Foster Kamer
05/31/09

@pfft: Couldn't agree more on all counts. I've updated the post to reflect my fuckup and the philosophical sadness about this.
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belltolls
05/31/09

In reply to Is The 'Jon And Kate Plus Eight' Story The Future Of Journalism?
If a satire falls in the forest and nobody hears it, is it still satire?
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Phyllis Nefler
05/31/09

@belltolls: Check out the comments in Pareene's thing. I wouldn't have pegged Vice readers to be so damn earnest.
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Moff
05/31/09

In reply to Is The 'Jon And Kate Plus Eight' Story The Future Of Journalism?
Google tracy klugian, and what comes up are a bunch of Andy Borowitz articles citing a person with that name (or "Tracy Klujian") as a source, but with a different job and location every time.

Which struck me at first as Possibly Scandalous. But then I looked closer, and he's a humor writer. Pretty sure the Jon & Kate story is satire, Foster. It's certainly not especially distinguishable as such, though -- great work, HuffPo!
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ladeedah
05/31/09

@Moff: One of the tags on the article is "Comedy News". I think that even they knew this was satire.
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Moff
05/31/09

@ladeedah: I know, but anyone with a couple weeks' experience in print or online media knows that a single tag, listed among a dozen others, doesn't stand out enough to clue a lot of readers in. It just doesn't. And it's not fair to blame the readers -- it's a responsible news outlet's job to distinguish very clearly when something is fake, and any editor worth their salt knows what a capacity readers have for failing to notice things (particularly when they're not expecting to be fooled) and compensates for it.
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Meretrix
05/31/09

In reply to Is The 'Jon And Kate Plus Eight' Story The Future Of Journalism?
Uh, isn't Borowitz a parody writer, a la "The Onion"? I assumed all his quotes in this story were deliberately faked.
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skahammer
05/31/09

@Meretrix: Yes, spending twenty seconds Googling "Davis Logsdon" will reveal who's getting punk'd here.

We should probably just move on from here.
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SarahHeartburn
05/31/09

@skahammer: En masse. For good.
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Moff
05/31/09

@Meretrix & skahammer: I think it was a reasonable mistake to make, though. The article isn't marked as comedy except in the tags, it's (sadly) not implausible, and Andy Borowitz isn't anywhere close to well known enough that one should automatically know anything under his byline is satire.
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skahammer
05/31/09

@SarahHeartburn: Although now that I think about it, perhaps it might be interesting to meditate for just a moment on what would cause someone to be so eager to miss the joke and take this patently absurd story seriously.

A Cultural-Revolution-style "self-criticism" might be just the ticket for a slow spring Sunday.
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skahammer
05/31/09

@Moff: I quote to you the article's kicker:

"Us magazine has been on top of 'Jon and Kate' from the very beginning," Mr. Logsdon said. "But they can't do it alone."

That wouldn't convince you to at least Google a name or two as backup?
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Foster Kamer
05/31/09

@skahammer and @Moff: You guys are both right. Running an update now. It came up on my feed as news! And the thing does - and actually could - read as news. Which, yeah: kinda fucked up.
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skahammer
05/31/09

@Foster Kamer: No worries. Moving on.
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Moff
05/31/09

@skahammer: Well, I did, as evidenced below. But dude, I know you've spent a fair amount of time on the Internet, so you know that my presumptions about the average intelligence of many readers are not unfair.

People don't notice shit. People fail to notice shit even when it's spelled out for them, in big block letters, with surprising frequency. And people especially fail to notice fake shit when it looks exactly the same as real shit. And people don't read to the bottom, and people immediately jump to insane conclusions, and further, every day people are quoted in real news stories saying things just as ridiculous as in this one. These are just facts of being people.

I don't think HuffPo is doing anything wrong. I just don't think this helps them gain any credibility.
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Moff
05/31/09

@Foster Kamer: I totally wouldn't have realized it was fake, because I didn't read it that closely, if I hadn't Googled Klugian because I wanted to see if he or she lived close enough to me for me to hit her with a board with a nail in it.
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Foster Kamer
05/31/09

@Moff: Assumptions make an ass out of you and me, as the obnoxious idiom goes, but it's fair to say that he probably does exist somewhere out there.
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Awesome X
05/31/09

@Foster Kamer: @Moff: I'll just throw out this related thought and then we'll pretend this never happened: Huffington Post sometimes does an awful job of writing headlines and properly noting what's satire and what's serious. I only ask that a website/blog give me an inkling of what the story's about, so I don't waste my time clicking on a piece in which I have no interest. In this way, Huffpo is like an effin' college paper, but lazier.
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El Matardillo
05/31/09

In reply to Is The 'Jon And Kate Plus Eight' Story The Future Of Journalism?
Never seen it. Never will.
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