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back to article Hacks hoodwinked by hoax Baltimore mayor's website

A fake website linking cult US television show The Wire to not-so-cult Blighty TV drama Midsomer Murders has hoodwinked several newspapers into reporting what they believed were the reactionary views of Baltimore mayor Sheila Dixon. The Guardian and Independent were both caught out by the hoax planted by political blogger and …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    art imatating life...

    a fabricated story... i wonder if Scott Templeton now works at the Grauniad...

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Oh the ironing!

    "It was quite an elaborate hoax including not only a spoof website, but also a fake Twitter account and a fake YouTube channel"

    Oh. Dear.

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  3. BoBeR182
    WTF?

    MEGA TYPO

    If hacks at the Grauniad and elsewhere had checked

    the Grauniad and

    Grauniad

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    @BoBeR182 - the Grauniad

    The Guardian bears that nickname because of their apparent use - or, rather, lack thereof - of spellcheckers when it comes to publishing. Not so long ago, it was common to find as many - or more - spelling mistakes on a single page in this much-"loved" English newspaper as you get on your average web forum where EASL(*) speakers post

    (*)English As Second Language

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  5. Apdsmith

    @BoBeR182

    Hi BoBe,

    That's actually the nickname for the Guardian, from it's history of poor typesetting and sub-editing. Good spot, though.

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  6. miknik
    FAIL

    it was an elaborate hoax

    not one of those simple ones we normally fall for like someone fiddling with wikipedia.

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  7. Goat Jam
    Welcome

    @BoBeR182

    If I may temporarily borrow yet another /. meme, ummm, you must be new here.

    http://search.theregister.co.uk/?q=grauniad

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