M(T)MMM # 434 -- Bieber as Media Bait

     I am convinced that it is easier than ever to perpetrate a hoax on the media. Not one of the scale from the plot of last season's The Newsroom on HBO (Returning for a final season in the Fall), but just a soft enough topic that none of the reporters looked closely enough at the subject.

THE SUBJECT:  Yea, him.
PERPETRATORS: TWO ATLANTA D.J.'S.
THE FAKE STORY: Justin Bieber wants to buy a house in The Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta, and neighbord are angry! There are even protestors picketing a big for sale mansion!! And people are making comments on a Facebook page!!
     Apparently the Atlanta media fell for it, sending camera crews to video the "protest" etc...including CNN, by the way.
     I don't spend a lot of time thinking about light fluffy celebrity stories...but we chatted about the story for a couple of minutes Monday Morning on ANN...it wasn't defamatory, after all, just another story from a hundred plus miles away involving a much talked-about celebrity.

THE LESSONS:  The existence of  a Facebook page means
                              nothing.
                              All stories are potential frauds.
                             
Then again we could have gotten it from CNN, with whom we affiliate, and it still would have been wrong.
The D.J.s boast they got:

33 international media outlets including TMZ to generate 45,000 plus news stories.

     I suspect most of those who used the story did so because after all, it's a Justin Bieber story! It almost doesn't matter if it's true!  But of course, it does. Because the same people who hoaxed you this time once may go for a bigger target soon. And you could be in on it.

[ALSO: The FCC has dropped a plan to install Federal monitors in newsrooms. Really? Their PR people didn't see the reaction to that one coming???] 

[The Monday {and sometimes Tuesday} Morning Media Memo] is a regular feature of TimLennox.com.]