Retractions?

02.01.2005

This is perhaps the funniest (or saddest?) thing I've ever seen, in terms of over-zealous media being duped by not fact-checking sources. Seems an online group claiming to be Islamic militants had a picture of a captured American GI, threatening to execute him in 72 hours, blah, blah. The Associated Press, Reuters, CNN, and others ran the story (w/ the "can't verify at this time" caveat added later). Turns out. Er. Maybe it was a mistake. Because. Um. The picture was a GI Joe action figure. Oops.

Does anyone in the mainstream media check anything for facts anymore? Or do they just run anything? Wow.

Sadly, it seems other action figures have been kidnapped by terrorist insurgents. Among them, the beloved Elmo. Please don't let the terrorists kill Elmo.

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UPDATE 1: Tuned to CNN to see if they'd mention this, ever. Though the story broke around 2pm EST, at 7:34pm EST CNN finally suggested "it might be" an action figure toy.

UPDATE 2: Although the story's been exposed as a hoax for several hours now, UK's Guardian still ran the story w/ a 2 February dateline, so it'll run in print editions in London long after the world knows the story is false. Good work, Guardian.

UPDATE 3: For the unfamiliar, here's the official GI Joe website.

UPDATE 4: Here's our GI Joe action figure's POW diary.

Posted by Miguel at 07:31 PM

Comments

Die elmo, die! Praises be to God! lalalalalalalalala

Posted by: tom at February 1, 2005 08:14 PM

I find it quite distasteful that someone would make fun of kidnappings and threats of beheading someone. Am I missing something here?

Posted by: Melli at February 1, 2005 09:04 PM

Hell, if you can't have a good laugh over a beheading, I think there's something fundamentally wrong!

Of course, I understand that it's a serious issue and laughing at it is sort of ghoulish. But Mellie, humor helps one cope, you know?

Posted by: tom at February 2, 2005 09:21 PM

Actually, some were arguing that this moment marked the turning point in the war on terror's domestic front: The day we laughed at them.

Posted by: Miguel [TypeKey Profile Page] at February 2, 2005 09:29 PM