Making (Up) The Headlines

The news that several leading national media outlets have been so easily duped by the false press release from ‘The Mayor of Baltimore’ raises some extremely awkward questions.
 
The now infamous release was manufactured and mailed to leading journalists yesterday afternoon in response to Conservative MP Chris Grayling’s comments comparing parts of "Broken Britain" to Baltimore, a crime-ridden city from popular TV show The Wire.
 
In it, Baltimore mayor Sheila Dixon hit back at Mr Grayling’s comments arguing that, "It is as pointless as boasting that Baltimore has a per capita homicide rate a fraction of that in the popular UK television show Midsomer Murders.”

 

Clues to the perpetrator of the monumental media-stitch up could be found embedded in the base of the story, with the copyright authored to ‘R Monkee Esq’. This was indeed a clear reference to Recess Monkey, a former Labour gossip site run by Parliamentary candidate Alex Hilton.
 
In an early telephone interview with me this afternoon, Hilton denied that the prank was underpinned by malicious intent, “It was just a prank I made up one afternoon as a joke for personal amusement, and I never expected the story to be taken seriously.”
 
Doubtless, many will ask how experienced journalists could be duped by a release riddled with puns and preposterous quotes. Could it be a heavy workload? A decline in standards of journalism? The recession?
 
Whatever the reason, Mr Hilton has set the benchmark for media hoaxes and it’s quite likely others will try to surpass it. The question is – will they succeed?
 

Comments

[Nadia Saint]

Nice. It's a very witty comment; if I were the mayor, I'd like to have it attributed to me!