Internet Hoax Articles Considered Harmful

Tim May tcmay at got.net
Mon Oct 8 09:17:07 PDT 2001


On Monday, October 8, 2001, at 05:44 AM, Declan McCullagh wrote:

> On Sun, Oct 07, 2001 at 11:54:50PM -0700, Tim May wrote:
>> PHILADELPHIA, Pennyslvania (AP) - Homeland Defense Secretary Tom Ridge
>> said Sunday that the U.S. faces a serious and expanding threat from
>> fraudulent Internet articles, or hoaxes.
>
> Almost. The most obvious sign that this is a hoax is your inclusion
> of the state in the dateline. For major cities, it's usually not 
> included.
>
> -Declan
>

Oh? Except for the most common cities (Washington, New York, Los 
Angeles, etc.), my sampling shows they usually give the state. Sometimes 
abbreviated to 2-4 letters, sometimes spelled out completely. Here are 
some AP items I pullled:

(By the way, the last item is NOT a hoax by me, and confirms what I 
posted from the Bloomberg site a few days ago.)

--Tim May


FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) - Crews on Saturday installed a clamp over a 
bullet hole in the trans-Alaska pipeline, finally stopping a leak that 
spewed 285,600 gallons of oil onto the wilderness over three days.

KNOB NOSTER, Mo. (AP) - They heard the rumbles and their houses shook. 
As they sat in their homes next to Whiteman Air Force Base, residents 
knew the retaliations had begun.

BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) - A co-worker of the man who died last week from 
anthrax also has tested positive for the disease and the building where 
both worked was closed after the bacterium was detected there.





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