In The Blogs

Hoax Alert: Bizarre "McCain Adviser" Too Good to Be True

| Mon Jul. 7, 2008 6:29 PM PDT

A few hours ago, we (okay, I) posted a blog about a man claiming to be a McCain adviser who made ridiculous comments on Iraqi television about building a casino in the Baghdad Green Zone. In addition to the inherent absurdity of it, there was a lot of arrogance, cultural insensitivity, and racism thrown in. Other blogs had posted on the guy, and when I checked him out before posting I found his blog and a foreign policy institute claiming his employ. Turns out the blog and institute, like the adviser, were an elaborate hoax. It didn't help that the guy, in creating his fictional foreign policy expert, closely mimicked the name of a real foreign policy expert.

Here's why I got taken: I received an emailed press release reporting that the supposed McCain adviser had apologized for his comments about the casino. You're welcome to disagree with me, but I had no reason to believe that someone would invent a persona, a blog, a foreign policy institution, a video with a fake Iraqi television station, a press release, and an organization or email entity to send out said press release.

But frankly, there was enough info on the web that I should have sussed this thing out. This is a long way of saying I apologize and that I'm more than a little ashamed. I've taken the post down. Kudos to the inventor of this whole thing. My only consolation is that if I had as much time on my hands as he clearly does, I probably would have figured this out and saved myself a fair amount of embarrassment.

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Comments

Submitted by G (not verified) on Mon Jul. 7, 2008 7:41 PM PDT.

My guess is that this is the work of The Yes Men. If so, this would be definitely be newsworthy, just in a different way. If you want to check them out and see if you agree, they are here http://theyesmen.org/.

Submitted by Billy Lamb (not verified) on Tue Jul. 8, 2008 5:23 AM PDT.

nah, man whatever -
it was a humorous spoof
of their shenanigans if
it weren't so DAMNED MURDEROUS AND EVIL it would have been funny. Not your fault, I guess, my point.

Any rate. Glad it's not true.

Submitted by Billy Lamb (not verified) on Tue Jul. 8, 2008 5:25 AM PDT.

nah, man whatever -
it was a humorous spoof
of their shenanigans if
(the war and it's profiteers) (sic) weren't so DAMNED MURDEROUS AND EVIL it would have been funny. Not your fault, I guess, my point.

Any rate. Glad it's not true.

Submitted by Paul Miller (not verified) on Tue Jul. 8, 2008 6:27 AM PDT.

Well, a few months back there was that invester in the news who wanted to build an amusement park in the green zone, so the story was certainly in the realm of believability. Don't beat yourself up, Jonathan.

Submitted by ilrod (not verified) on Tue Jul. 8, 2008 2:19 PM PDT.

Paul's right. Don't worry about it. Viewed as satire, the whole thing is pretty clever. Definitely feels like Yes Men.

On the other hand, how is this guy any more of a "hoax" than Michelle Malkin, Debbie Schlussel or the Coulter? They (respectively) change their names when it suits them, advocate slavery and genocide and have no discernible qualifications for their punditry.