Fox Affiliate Falls for College Humor's Office Note War Prank

33.10K

Hudson Hongo

08/26/14 03:00PM

Filed to: viral garbage

Last Tuesday, College Humor posted a photo series titled "This Is The Most Passive-Aggressive Office Battle We've Ever Seen" depicting an exchange of break room notes that escalates into a full-scale sandwich hostage crisis. It was pretty funny, but also totally fake, as made clear by the extensive watermarks and "CH Staff" byline, an attribution the site reserves for original works like last year's phony Breaking Bad finale script.

The obvious joke wasn't quite as obvious, however, when someone cropped out the "College Humor" watermarks and posted the images on Reddit, the bottomless well from which all deadline-facing bloggers drink. From there the clearly staged photos were picked up far and wide, earning credulous coverage from the Daily Mail, the Mirror and Fox 32 Chicago, which ran the headline "Lunch theft prompts ransom note from sandwich thief."

When those news organizations did try to credit the pictures, they generally cited the Facebook page of a New Zealand radio station, which—as most non-journalists could probably tell you—isn't a real source.

But probably the funniest write-up of all came from Rupert Murdoch's News.com.au. "Beware the sandwich thief," cautioned the News Corp subsidiary, apparently unable to heed their own warning.

[Images via CollegeHumor]

Antiviral is a new blog devoted to debunking fake news, online hoaxes and viral garbage. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter and send your tips to hudson.hongo@gawker.com.

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5

Grumpy Alpaca, Host Hudson Hongo 08/26/14 07:57PM

Everyone seems bent on criticizing Fox News these days. Granted, they make some reporting errors now and then—but so does CNN, NBC, the BBC and many, many other news outlets. Pointing out news errors is good, but in my opinion, Fox News's journalism is as good as, if not better than, some of the news sources that its harshest critics rely on for their daily information. Granted, I'm not saying that Fox News is a perfect, unbiased news source—no media company is, and to get anything close to unbiased you have to average the information you get from lots of different news sources (all with their own inherent bias)—but it would be refreshing to see a headline that didn't jab Fox News in particular for a wide-ranging error that involved multiple news sources.

3

Gawker'sHater Grumpy Alpaca, Host 08/27/14 10:21AM

Exactly. Gawker HATES anything Fox. The title says it all. Multiple outlets fell for this, made harmless posts, and Gawker only focuses on one. Gawker is as biased, if not more, than Fox.

2

Uncle Chigurh Grumpy Alpaca, Host 08/28/14 06:45AM

Fox News's journalism is as good as, if not better than, some of the news sources that its harshest critics rely on for their daily information.

HAHAHA. No.

Fox News does not practice journalism.

1

Grumpy Alpaca, Host Uncle Chigurh 08/28/14 12:55PM

Fox News does not practice journalism.

I'd like to see some evidence for that statement. Especially compared to other major news sources in the US. I really hope that people don't rely on blog sites like Gawker News and Buzzfeed for their access to good journalism.

2

Uncle Chigurh Grumpy Alpaca, Host 08/29/14 11:22PM

Fox News argued in a court case that they have the right to lie to their viewers. They won. That's not journalism.

9

kipsydaisy Hudson Hongo 08/26/14 03:31PM

Am I alone in finding these dumb as hell? Granted, if it actually happened, then that'd be sort of cute. But it didn't. You can make this crap up all day long. Its humor is rooted in the fact, and I think only the fact, people will think it's real (as many a friend and FB poster has in my "stream'). Otherwise, who really cares about these imaginary note-writers.

5

G3istbot kipsydaisy 08/26/14 03:41PM

I found it entertaining even knowing it was all fake.

ConradPoohs G3istbot 08/26/14 04:20PM

Agreed, I laughed

WolfPup kipsydaisy 08/26/14 07:55PM

I actually found it pretty funny because this kind of stuff happens in my office. We can be pretty silly people up in healthcare IT.

1

    M     Hudson Hongo 08/26/14 05:36PM

Fox News is just trying to bring a little internet comedy to its elderly viewers, many of whom don't use the internet. Stop trying to put your lamestream media bias on everything the the real fair and balanced news does

Gawker'sHater     M     08/27/14 10:25AM

Except it's not Fox News, it's a local affiliate. At least old people know how to read.

1

    M     Gawker'sHater 08/27/14 03:55PM

WFLD Fox 32 is a Fox O&O station. It's owned and operated by News Corp. Not only can I read, I can understand a joke

Gawker'sHater     M     08/28/14 10:07AM

A joke needs a premise and punchline. You have neither, so you'll have to excuse me for thinking you're serious.

1

Let's help 'em out Hudson Hongo 08/26/14 03:37PM

I mean, compared to the mess of reporting surrounding the Iraq war, this isn't so bad, right?

1

pswift Let's help 'em out 08/26/14 03:41PM

Fox affiliate. Not Fox News.

Jerry Callo, Esq., Trump U. School of Law '89 pswift 08/26/14 11:00PM

This crap drives me nuts... Local Fox affiliates have little more in common with "Fox News" than any other network. All the local Fox affiliate anchors and reporters I know are pretty liberal (at least as much so as the reporters from CNN and other nets). Granted, this was stupid, but it's "local news" stupid, not "Fox News" stupid.