"Stop My Abortion" Site Was A Hoax

Via the Friendly Atheist:

Remember the anonymous woman who said she would go ahead with her planned abortion unless pro-lifers raised $1 million (which she said would be put in a trust fund for the child)? Turns out it was a hoax. A great big publicity stunt. The website ProLifeAntiWoman.com no longer has the woman’s plea. It’s now a website promoting the novel Strange Animals by Chad Kultgen. (The text that went viral was an excerpt from the book, it says.) The campaign may have backfired, though. The book was just released today by publishers Harper Perennial, and every review on Amazon so far has given it a 1-star rating.

Some of you called this.

Radio Station Suspends Hoax Deejays

The two Long Island radio hosts who pulled that anti-gay party invite hoax have been suspended. From the station's Facebook page:

Wednesday, February 12, 2014, the K-98.3 (WKJY) Morning Show with Steve and Leeana aired a story about a girl’s birthday party and one parent’s objection to the same-sex situation of that girl’s parents. After this aired, it was brought to K-98.3 management’s attention that all the details of the story were completely fabricated independently by Steve and Leeana. This was done without the knowledge of K-98.3 management or ownership. The story, presented as a real event, was, in fact, fictitious. An internal investigation was quickly launched which has resulted in the immediate suspension of Steve Harper and Leeana Karlson from the K-98.3 Morning Show. In an effort to move forward, K-98.3 has been speaking with local community organizations, such as the Long Island GLBT Services Network, to ensure the fabricated story does not result in further damages with respect to the GLBT community.

The head of the Long Island GLBT Services Network has praised to the station's response. The station's parent company has also issued an apology. Commenters at the Facebook link are arguing over whether the pair should be fired.

Party Invite Story Was A Hoax

Josh Barro called it - that party invite story that made headlines a few days ago was a hoax pulled by two radio hosts at the Long Island station that first publicized it.

The alleged homophobic note sent by a mother in response to a birthday invite from two gay dads was apparently all just a hoax concocted by a local New York radio station. The note was posted to the station's Facebook page Wednesday. Readers expressed their disgust and offered support to the same-sex parents. It was shared across the Internet and covered by the media. Now, the entire incident has been revealed as a hoax drummed up by K-98.3's Steve Harper and his "Morning Show" co-host, Leeana. The two posted an apology note on the station's website Friday.

Here's the apology.

Dear K-98.3 Listeners, On Wednesday, we told you the story of Sophia's birthday party, and one parent's objection to the same-sex household of Sophia's parents. We also posted the invitation on our Facebook page, and invited comments from our followers. This story was, in fact, totally fictitious, and created by the two of us. This was done without the knowledge of K-98.3 management or ownership. We were attempting to spur a healthy discourse on a highly passionate topic, but we made a mistake by misleading our listeners into thinking that this specific situation actually existed. We are very sorry that we perpetuated this falsehood, even after it was clear that it had taken on a 'life of its own.' We deeply apologize for violating your trust, and we will work hard to regain that trust. Sincerely, Steve & Leeana.

Some are calling for the hosts to be fired.

Why, Why, Manti?

From Brooklyn's Gregory Brothers.

Fake Lesbian Bloggers Get Animated

Lez Get Real Blogger Also A Man

On the heels of Gay Girl In Damascus scandal comes news that the author of the popular Lez Get Real is also a man.

Just one day after the author behind a popular Syrian lesbian blog admitted to being a married, American man named Tom MacMaster, the editor of the lesbian news site Lez Get Real, with the tag­line “A Gay Girl’s View on the World,” acknowledged that he is also a man. “Paula Brooks,” editor of Lez Get Real since its founding in 2008, is actually Bill Graber, 58, a retired Ohio military man and construction worker who said he had adopted his wife’s identity online. Graber said she was unaware he had been using her name on his site.

This bit kills me: "In the guise of Paula Brooks, Graber corresponded online with Tom MacMaster, thinking he was writing to Amina Arraf. Amina often flirted with Brooks, neither of the men realizing the other was pretending to be a lesbian."

Quote Of The Day - Tom MacMaster

"I never expected this level of attention. While the narrative voıce may have been fictional, the facts on thıs blog are true and not mısleading as to the situation on the ground. I do not believe that I have harmed anyone -- I feel that I have created an important voice for issues that I feel strongly about. I only hope that people pay as much attention to the people of the Middle East and their struggles in thıs year of revolutions. The events there are beıng shaped by the people living them on a daily basis. I have only tried to illuminate them for a western audience." - Heterosexual American writer Tom MacMaster, confessing that he was the author of Gay Girl In Damascus, a blog which gained international attention last week when MacMaster pretended to have been kidnapped.

NYT: Is Syrian "Kidnapping" A Hoax?

The New York Times warns that not one person can report having actually met or spoken to the lesbian blogger allegedly kidnapped yesterday in Syria. In fact, some recent entries on her blog may have first been posted in 2007.

Although it remains possible that the blog’s author was indeed detained, and has been writing a factual, not fictional account of recent events in Syria, readers should be aware that the one person who has identified herself — to The Times, The BBC and Al Jazeera — as a personal friend of the blogger, Sandra Bagaria, has now clarified that she has never actually met the author of the Gay Girl in Damascus blog. Ms. Bagaria told The Lede that she had also never conversed with Ms. Arraf face to face via Skype, but had conducted an online relationship with her since January entirely through Internet text communications

.

Acid Hoax Woman Charged With Theft

The Washington state woman who falsely claimed that a black girl threw acid in her face is being charged with theft for accepting donations from a fooled community. When she was first hospitalized, the woman told reporters that it was only through her faith in Jeebus that she survived the attack of the evil (nonexistent) black woman.

(Tipped by JMG reader Andy)

WASHINGTON: "A Black Girl Threw Acid In My Face! (Oh, Wait...I Did It Myself)"

A Washington woman who told reporters that she was only alive because of her faith in Jeebus has been exposed as having actually thrown acid on her own face. So much for the unidentified black woman the hoaxer had accused. The "attack" has been discussed daily on right wing talk radio.

A woman who said she was attacked with acid outside a Starbucks has admitted her injuries were self-inflicted, Vancouver, Wash., police said. Police Chief Clifford Cook said investigators questioned Bethany Storro, confronting her with inconsistencies in her story, The Portland Oregonian reported. "She is extremely upset. She is very remorseful," said Cmdr. Marla Schuman, describing Storro as being in a "fragile" emotional condition. Storro, 28, who had recently moved to Vancouver, told police she was approached Aug. 30 by a young black woman who said "Hey, pretty girl, do you want to drink this," before throwing the acid in her face.

Police don't know why the devout woman "went out of her way" to claim that the attack had been committed by a black person.

Tweet Of The Day - Bill Cosby

The supposed death of Bill Cosby is the top trending topic on Twitter for the fourth time in about a year. Others celebrities who have suffered hoaxed Twitter deaths recently include Rick Astley, Mel Gibson, Russell Crowe, and Britney Spears.

Uganda Beheading Story A Hoax

Jim Burroway at Box Turtle Bulletin reports today that yesterday's story about the beheading of a Ugandan LGBT activist was an apparent hoax planted by an anti-gay activist. Hit the BTB link for exhaustive examination of the scam.

Rachel Maddow Denies Senate Run

Sen. Scott Brown fabricated a rumor that Rachel Maddow would be running against him in Massachusetts, where Maddow has a home. Last night, Maddow and her co-host ripped the hoax apart.

VIDEO: Utah's Final Solution Presser

Here's yesterday's press conference by hoaxers Patriots For A Moral Utah. It actually comes across better on video. The spokeswoman totally nails the type. "We don't hate homosexuals, we just don't want them to cram their members down our throat." HAH. And they've just put up a website. BTW, I don't think the protesters are in on it.

Utah "Final Solution" Group A Hoax

As suspected, the Patriots For A Moral Utah and their Final Solution was a rather elaborate hoax intended to dramatize the frightening escalation of anti-gay rhetoric by Christianist groups. Two of the hoaxers are members of the Utah environmentalist group Peaceful Uprising, although that organization appears uninvolved. Jesse Fruhwirth at Salt Lake City's alternative newspaper City Weekly is unamused.

As I reported first via my Twitter feed, the press conference calling for a ballot initiative to remove homosexuals from Utah was fake. At best, the organizers put together improv theater that punked the Utah press corps and maybe got people to think about gay rights for a moment. It's fashionable to make fools of news media folk such as myself, so, touche. But at its worst, it was an offensive attention-grabbing play on Holocaust-like imagery and language that does little to advance the argument for gay rights in Utah.

The phony press conference is a play out of the Yes Men play book. For example, The Yes Men once punked the U.S. Chamber of Commerce by announcing a press conference, then posing as representatives of that group while calling for climate change legisation. It was funny, you see, because the Chamber opposes such legislation. Ha. Zinger. Got 'em.

I'm not sure what Ha-Ha we were supposed to get from today's action, but I think the point they must have been trying to make is that it is somewhat believable that Utah could foster such a movement of concerned citizens that would openly and publicly call for Nazi-like solutions to the "homosexual problem?" Ha?

Read Fruhwirth's column for a telling of how the press conference went down and for a lot more indignation. I'm not too bothered by the hoax, although I think it would have played out better if there had been an attempt to gain pledges of solidarity from major anti-gay groups. The sputtering "But, but...we're not like THAT" responses would have been rich to behold. And points to them for an inspired mashup of both Poe's Law and Godwin's Law in a manner that left many quite willing to believe such a group could exist. Scary, huh? Still I can definitely understand how some might take enormous offense to the co-opting of the Holocaust in a theatrical attempt to ridicule our enemies. What's your take?

McCain's Girls A Hoax

Speaking of raining men, the NY Times is reporting that the "McCain Girls" video that cracked us up here a few weeks ago is a hoax.

John McCain says the “McCain Girls,” a trio of singing and dancing campaign supporters, are wonderful and entertaining. True believers or not, these women were paid to sing “It’s Raining McCain.” Given his flair for irony, it’s a little hard to tell whether he gets the joke.

The McCain Girls videos, which were posted on YouTube last month with no clues about their provenance, are clearly meant to be imitations of — or parodies of — the “Obama Girl” videos, which themselves are parodies (right?).

While the Obama Girl looks like a pinup and sings catchy tunes, the McCain Girls could not be confused with fashion models or pop music stars. Their first video, “Raining McCain,” set to the tune of “It’s Raining Men,” was posted on YouTube four weeks ago. A sample lyric: “In the 2008 election, the forecast calls for rain; the first time in history, it’s gonna start raining McCain.”

That video recorded more than 1.6 million views and earned mentions on CNN and on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” with people alternately mocking it and wondering who was responsible. The singers seemed intentionally bad, which led many bloggers and YouTube commenters to assume that it was meant to insult Mr. McCain.

[snip]

Drum roll, please: The creators of the McCain Girls turn out to be the comedy team behind 23/6, a five-month-old Web site owned by an affiliate of IAC/InterActiveCorp that parodies the news. The site, at 236.com, uses the motto “Some of the news, most of the time.” Indeed, the videos’ makers say they were trying to tread the line between sincerity and irony. “We wanted to parody the campaign-song phenomenon,” said Sarah Bernard, the president of 23/6. Because most of the so-called stars of YouTube are amateurs, the comedy site decided to take no credit for its creation.

Well played!

Donnie Davies Plays SXSW

Donnie Davies, perpetrator of the most hilarious hoax in gay blogosphere history, will be playing this weekend's SXSW music festival in Austin, Texas, with his band Evening Service. "Stroke the power" and "watch Donnie cock-block the Dark Lord on his own turf." I love the poster, check out Satan's pink jockstrap and hot bod. I wonder if anybody at next week's Black Party will have an outfit like that?