And you guys thought bloggers were bad? Yesterday, the major news networks worked themselves into a frenzy after a Texas sheriff reported that 30 “dismembered bodies of children” had been unearthed in a mass grave in Texas.
Not wanting to miss out on the possible scoop of the century, the major news organizations ordered all of their reporters to drop what they were doing and get into the air, by plane or helicopter, to descend upon the sleepy Texas town of Hardin.
In the end, it all turned out to be a hoax perpetrated by a nutcase “psychic,” who called in the original tip about a mass grave.
This story should never have grown to the proportions that it did. But thanks to social media — and spurred on by bloodthirsty news organizations — the hoax grew legs and led all news broadcasts last night.
The word “psychic” should have raised a flurry of red flags, if not with the gullible media, then at least with the FBI who should have known better.
For more info on this story, read: How one psychic conned the Texas police, the FBI, the media and the world
