Hackers got their hands on AP’s Twitter feed today and briefly sent blood pressures racing with an afternoon tweet that President Obama had been injured in a pair of White House explosions, reports the Huffington Post. The real AP tweeted minutes later that it was a hoax and suspended the account. Incredibly, the Dow had been up 130 points before the tweet and lost all of it within a minute, reports the Wall Street Journal. Read more on Newser…
Gotta say, props to Katie Couric for not messin’ around in her exclusive interview with Notre Dame football player Manti Te’o. Te’o had a much publicized sob story about losing both his grandmother and his girlfriend on the same day, but it was recently revealed on Deadspin that his girlfriend Lennay did not exist and her persona was concocted by an acquaitance of Manti’s. This called many of Manti’s previous statements about Lennay into question, including the fact that he claimed that they “met” after a game and that he had told his parents she had visited him in Hawaii. So when Manti tried to tell Katie that he hadn’t lied about Lennay, she didn’t let him get away with it. Keep reading »
Even if you know nothing about sports (ME!), you are now familiar with the name Manti Te’o, linebacker for Notre Dame. Yesterday, Deadspin published a piece exposing Te’o's girlfriend’s death as a hoax. Not just her death, but her existence. Lennay Kekua was never born, never attended Stanford, never got in a serious car wreck, and never died from leukemia. If those last few sentences sounded complicated, that’s because this story is a clusterfuck.
To give the most cursory of summaries, Deadspin discovered what every other mainstream news outlet — like ESPN and Sports Illustrated – should have: that Manti Te’o got “Catfished.” I refer to the 2010 documentary “Catfish” and subsequent MTV series about people who are bamboozled into having relationships with people on the internet who turn out to be fictional. To add another layer of complexity to this story, it’s unclear whether Te’o was “Catfished” without his knowledge or whether he was in on the hoax. And if he was an orchestrator of the hoax, what was his motivation? Was the sob story — that his grandmother and girlfriend died on the same day — concocted to aid in his question for the Heisman? Or did he make up a nearly year-long romantic relationship to cover for the fact that he’s really gay? Of course, there’s always the possibility that he is a serious sociopath.
But for the sake of argument, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt for a moment and assume that he was “Catfished” without his knowledge as he claims. This actually happens more than one would think. And there are some simple ways to avoid being a victim of “Catfishing.” Our tips after the jump. Keep reading »
Sports website Deadspin has uncovered a doozy of a scoop in the world of college football: This year’s inspirational tale of woe about Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o looks to be an elaborate hoax. All season, fans heard how Te’o drew inspiration from girlfriend Lennay Kekua, who died of leukemia. Except Lennay Kekua never existed, despite countless stories in the media about her life and death. Deadspin even found the 22-year-old woman whose Facebook photo was used in the ruse as the face of Lennay, much to her surprise. The big question now—was Heisman finalist Te’o an accomplice or a victim? (Update: Te’o tells ESPN he is the victim of a “sick joke” and is embarrassed by the revelation. He says he and “Lennay” had communicated frequently, but it was online and by phone.) Read more…
Timed to coincide with tonight’s telecast of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, some activist types launched “PINK loves CONSENT,” a Victoria’s Secret parody peddling anti-rape panties. ”To win back customers it has alienated with its ‘rape culture’ styles,” an activist who insisted she worked for Victoria’s Secret told Jezebel, the brand would replace apparently rape-friendly slogans like “SURE THING” with rape-thwarting slogans like “ASK FIRST.” “When it comes to sex, words like ‘no’ are for setting boundaries, NOT flirting.”
Within 24 hours of its launch, Jezebel debunked the campaign. Female bloggers took to Tumblr, warning one another that this anti-rape lingerie line was not real, so do not fall for it. Read more…
Yesterday. we were aghast to hear that a 20-year-old Louisiana woman named Sharmeka Moffitt claimed she had been attacked by three men and set on fire, burning the majority of her body, in a hate crime.
Last night, police confirmed that Sharmeka Moffitt actually faked the “attack,” scrawled the n-word and KKK on her car, and set herelf ablaze. Keep reading »
About a year ago, the ad agency I worked for let me go and while I looked for another job in advertising, I started babysitting to pay the bills. It was somewhat surprising to me how much I liked working as a babysitter: the hours are flexible, the pay is under the table, and you get to tell your co-workers what to do. However, things took an unexpected turn when June arrived and summer vacations began. I had assumed that with the kids being out of school my hours would increase. I was dead wrong; all my babysitting jobs dried up and I began to get desperate. Like, pricing-out-valuables desperate.
I get all of my babysitting gigs from a very well-respected site (that will go unnamed here). I began trolling the website multiple times a day and applying to everything in a 15 mile radius. “Looking for a nanny with infant experience” — hey, I was an infant once! “Must be fluent in Spanish” — dame trabajo ahora! “Must have your own car” — I could probably dig up a vehicle somewhere!
I was frantic, until one day I saw an ad for a nanny position posted by a woman named “Santina.” Keep reading »
Last week, we told you about the mysterious disappearance of Amina Abdallah, 35, a lesbian woman in Syria who penned the blog Gay Girl in Damascus. As Jessica initially wrote in that post, according to a post written by her cousin, on June 6, three men pulled up in a car and grabbed Abdallah. In a followup post, her cousin simply said she is “missing.” Shortly after word of her disappearance spread on the internet, along with various photos of Abdallah, a woman named Jelena Lecic, from the UK, came forward and said that the photos were actually of her. (The photo at left is Lecic and is one of the photos used to represent Abdallah on the internet.) This caused many to question not only the legitimacy of Abdallah’s disappearance, but also her existence as well.
And, as it turns out, those hunches were right. There is no Amina Abdallah. Keep reading »
Was Lady Gaga the victim of a twisted Twitter hoax? A Crushable blogger claims a 15-year-old girl named Ana, who allegedly tweeted under the Twitter handle @analilmonster and allegedly died from cancer this morning, may not actually exist.
Ana has apparently only tweeted for the past five days and only tweeted about Lady Gaga and having leukemia. Ana’s alleged brother, the Twitter account @JoelxSoul, was created yesterday, when he tweeted at @analilmonster only once to say goodnight to her, and then this morning tweeted that Ana had died. @JoelxSoul said their family wanted privacy, but also wanted the news of his sister’s death to reach the pop star. Lady Gaga — or whoever mans her Twitter account — responded to his tweet twice, saying, “Will cry all day, we lost a lovely and beautiful little monster ana to leukemia” and “I’m so deepy [sic] sad reading this, monsters lets send her family love.”
Did a young Lady Gaga fan named Ana really die from cancer this morning? Or does the odd behavior add up to a bizarre — and tasteless — hoax? Only time will tell. [Crushable] Keep reading »
Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Is Tiger Woods hiding from the public eye because Elin Nordegren busted him in the face so bad with a golf club that he had to fly to Phoenix for plastic surgery?
That’s what a letter posted on the gossip blog Hollywood Interrupted is claiming. Blogs Gawker and Deadspin both say the letter is a hoax, as it is supposedly written by a close confidante of Woods’ agent, who also happens to be one of Woods’ neighbors. Probably true—hoaxes are hot right now! Anyway, the dirtiest dirt, after the jump … Keep reading »
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