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March 19, 2006
Fake News Appears on Google News
Sometimes it really is a good idea to have a live person edit the news instead of a computer. At least that seems to be the moral of the story told by Rich Wiggins on "How to Spam Google News" Part 1 & 2.
In a nutshell, Rich figured out that a political candidate was planting what the average reader would undoubtedly consider to be "non-stories" on Google News , for what I guess are obvious reasons. Rich and a few of his friends tried issuing press releases to see if they, too, could get their stuff carried by Google News, and low and behold, it worked. The word spread, as these things do on the Internet, resulting in several fake stories with misinformation being posted to Google News. It makes for fascinating reading, so see Wigblog for the full-details.
Beleaguered newspaper editors should feel somewhat vindicated. There is actually a reason for their existence. On the other hand, maybe people find fake news to be more interesting than the real thing!
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