Museum of Hoaxes in Christian Science Monitor

The Museum of Hoaxes got mentioned twice in the Christian Science Monitor in the past two days. The first time is in a story by Randy Dotinga titled "When computers do news, hoaxes slip in." It's about the spate of recent online press release hoaxes, such as Tom Vendetta's hoax of a few days ago. I get quoted at the end of the article:

"In the old days, to perpetrate a hoax and get it in front of the eyes of the millions of people, you had to be in the media some way or have access to a reporter. Nowadays, literally anybody can do it," says Alex Boese, author of "Hippo Eats Dwarf: A Field Guide to Hoaxes and other BS." Google News and its rival sites offer pranksters a forum that seems legitimate, adding credibility to fake stories, Mr. Boese says.

I couldn't have said it better myself (though I think they added a 'the' in 'the eyes of the millions of people'). And then there's an article by Jim Regan titled "Beware the first of April" (which doesn't seem to be online yet because it's coming out in tomorrow's edition, though it's already posted in Lexis Nexis). It talks about my list of the top 100 April Fools Hoaxes and mentions that I also list April Fools hoaxes chronologically going all the way back to the 18th century. But then it says this:

while the Museum's coverage is impressive, the History page records events only up until 2002, so for those looking for a refresher on more recent deceits, Wikipedia's entry on April Fool's Day supplements its main collection with links to April 1st pages from the last four years.

This was true when Regan wrote the article. Up until last night my list of April Fools did stop at 2002. But it's no longer true because I spent much of the past week completely overhauling my history of April Fools section, so that it's now up to date.

Miscellaneous

Posted on Tue Mar 28, 2006



Comments

Congratulations on another publicity coup Alex. Better enjoy their kudos now before they find out about the "Prove God Exists and Get $1,000,000" thread.
Posted by Captain Al  on  Tue Mar 28, 2006  at  05:16 PM
Captain Al said:

"Better enjoy their kudos now before they find out about the "Prove God Exists and Get $1,000,000" thread."

Or the LifeWave thread, now well over 100 pages and showing no sign of ending any time soon.
Posted by Cranky Media Guy  on  Wed Mar 29, 2006  at  03:37 AM
You think Christians would have a problem with us? Whatever would give you that idea? 😉

Too bad it's petered out. There isn't anybody to argue with anymore.
Posted by Charybdis  on  Wed Mar 29, 2006  at  08:56 AM
Well, I don't have a problem... don't see why others would... 😊
Posted by Tru  on  Wed Mar 29, 2006  at  09:34 AM
Yeah, but you refuse to argue with us. I'm not sure if that makes you smarter than us or not. 😛
Posted by Charybdis  on  Wed Mar 29, 2006  at  10:08 AM
Us skeptics are sooooo negative! 🧛
Posted by Captain Al  on  Wed Mar 29, 2006  at  12:06 PM
Well done you!
Posted by Emily  on  Thu Mar 30, 2006  at  12:42 PM
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