Jezebel: hoaxes

Heenes To Plead Guilty

Intern Katy — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:40:00 EST

Fame-hungry parents Richard and Mayumi Heene will plead guilty to charges resulting from the "balloon boy" hoax. Although they could potentially receive jail time, the prosecutor has recommended probation. [CNN]

Discrimination Lawsuit Revealed As A Joke

Intern Katy — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:20:00 EDT

A recent article about an overweight woman who was told "I'm sorry, but you're too fat" by EasyJet airport security has been denounced as a hoax. However, EasyJet policy does allow workers to "suggest" fat passengers buy two tickets. [Telegraph]

Everyone Is Faking It But Madonna and Paris Hilton

Megan — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:40:00 EDT

Paris Hilton has another video in support of her nascent Presidential campaign and, this time, she's got Jeb Bartlett giving her advice. It's not as good as the first, but it just goes to show that President Bartlett was nothing without Josh. [Funny or Die]
In other really important news, Madonna really doesn't want "Sarah Fucking Palin" at her party and doesn't appreciate the winking. [Huffington Post]
And the Foo Fighters want McCain to stop using their song "My Hero." Man, does anyone listen to lyrics anymore?[WWLTV]
McCain thinks we're all his "fellow prisoners." So do we, old man, so do we. [Think Progress]

Even General Petraeus agrees with Obama about Afghanistan and Pakistan now. Who's naive now? [Washington Independent]
Oh, and Obama's harped-upon planetarium earmark? Failed, and it was (as I thought) for one of those projectors that makes the stars at planetariums and helps with, you know, science education and shit. It was not one of those things your high school teachers put transparencies on. [Huffington Post]
Speaking of science education, the Supreme Court is going to hear arguments about when Navy sonar is harming whales. I'm betting they rule in favor of the navy, just because.[Washington Post]
Yes, yes, rumors continue to swirl about Sarah Palin supposedly appearing on Saturday Night Live this weekend despite the fact that the campaign has floated this every week for the last three weeks in order to soften her appearance. Even Seth Meyers is saying its not true. Just because they want us to think she has a sense of humor doesn't mean she does. [Newsday]

Website Claims To Have 68-Year History On Every Abortion-Having American Woman

Jessica — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:30:00 EDT

A reader sent us a link to something called Abortiontracker.com, a site that claims to have compiled "a comprehensive list of every woman who has had an abortion procedure performed in the United States and Canada, dating back to 1940." To get access to this alleged database, you need to pay $799 for a seven day pass to the site or up to $16,999 for unlimited access to "full names, complete addresses, unlimited contact information, false names used during operation procedures, reasons listed for abortions, known STDs at (and since) time of abortion, [and the] name of person believed to be the father."

Abortion Tracker claims that it gets all this information from disgruntled workers at abortion clinics "who have since found the Lord, or whom always had the Lord, but only decided to deliver 'borrowed' records to us after the fact." The website is registered to Moniker Privacy Services which masks the identity of the true website owners. We gave NARAL a ring, and they'd never heard of these yahoos. We're calling bullshit on this one. The entire thing sounds like a sick get-rich-quick hoax. HOWEVER! One word of (probably paranoid) caution: while I don't believe for a hot minute that these jerks have access to any medical records, I would advise people who go to the website not to enter anyone's name into the search engine. The only way I can imagine these people get any names of abortion-havers is through the information viewers enter in unwittingly.

Abortion Tracker [Official Website]
NARAL [Official Website]

Did Hillary Clinton adviser Mickey Cantor...

Moe — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:20:00 EDT

Did Hillary Clinton adviser Mickey Cantor slur the average Indiana voter as a "worthless white n-gger" while cameras were rolling? He says he did not. The director of the movie War Room, from which this new viral video is clipped, says he did not. This seems like a hoax perpetuated by the type of people who run Encyclopedia Dramatica, but I'll embed the video after the jump so you can decide for yourselves. Bonus discussion question: has it become acceptable to use the word "wigger"? I keep hearing it and feeling deeply conflicted, which is weird for me. [Wonkette]

Remember Thomas Beatie, the pregnant transmale,...

Jessica — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:45:00 EDT

Remember Thomas Beatie, the pregnant transmale, who looks like a dude, but is with child like a lady? Well Beatie's neighbors in Oregon are calling bullshit on him, saying that the pregnancy is a fake. Ron Schlieper, who lives near Beatie in Bend, Oregon, told ABC News, "Quite frankly, I think it's a hoax. I saw him a few days ago, and he didn't look like that." The Advocate, the magazine that published Beatie's first-person account of his pregnancy, is standing behind him. "We asked Thomas to provide the name of his doctor, and she confirmed that he was pregnant and that his pregnancy is proceeding as it should," according to Advocate editor Anne Stockwell. Is he the Peggy Seltzer of pregnancy?? [Guanabee, ABC News]