Liar, Liar Pants On Fire

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July 2008
- AP Pulls Faked Tornado Video
  
  newser | Associated Press | Jul 10, 08 8:58 AM CDT
  
  The Associated Press has pulled a video described as depicting a tornado that hit Nebraska last weekend after a storm chaser claimed that it was faked. After Andy Fabel sold the clip to the AP, which passed it along to 2,000 websites, another man noticed similarities between it and his own footage of a twister that hit Kansas 4 years ago. More »
- Flip-Flopping Pols Are Just Channeling Inner Hypocrite
  
  newser | New York Times | Jul 1, 08 1:51 PM CDT
  
  Think all politicians are self-justifying hypocrites? You're probably right, John Tierney writes in the New York Times . As a recent psychological study demonstrates, all of us, given enough time and mental wiggle room, will succumb to the "self-halo effect," justifying in ourselves and our allies moral lapses we readily condemn in anyone of an opposing group. More »
May 2008
- Has Airbrushing Gone Too Far?
  
  newser | Newsweek | May 3, 08 4:57 PM CDT
  
  Shutterbugs have long altered pics, but now critics are cringing over the effects of airbrushing on young girls. French lawmakers have even approved a law against inciting "excessive thinness." But would such a move work in America? Maybe not, "but there are a whole lot of impressionable young kids" who are tortured by images of slimmed-down and retouched women, Jessica Bennett writes in Newsweek . More »
April 2008
- Lying Admiral Forced to Retire
  
  newser | Navy Times | Apr 22, 08 2:39 AM CDT
  
  A Navy officer accused of lying to investigators has been reprimanded and will take early retirement, the Navy Times reports. Rear Admiral John "Boomer" Stufflebeem was found to have made false statements about what was termed an "inappropriate relationship" while he was a military aide to former President Bush 18 years ago. The nature of the relationship was not disclosed. More »
- White House 'Duped' General Into Torture: Book
  
  newser | Guardian (UK) | Apr 19, 08 7:54 AM CDT
  
  The Bush administration "hoodwinked" one of the country's top military men in order to establish harsh interrogation techniques on Guantanamo Bay prisoners, according to revelations in a new book reported in the Guardian. Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers was misled by White House aides into abandoning the military's long-standing ban on inhumane treatment of prisoners, according to London law professor Phillipe Sands in his book Torture Team. More »
- No Joy in Job Hunt for Ex-Attorney General
  
  newser | New York Times | Apr 13, 08 7:19 AM CDT
  
  Ex-attorneys general often enjoy elite private sector jobs, but disgraced Alberto Gonzales is still job-hunting since he resigned last August, the New York Times reports. Lawyers say perjury allegations concerning testimony about eavesdropping and his role in the politically motivated firing of federal prosecutors are the biggest problems with Gonzales' resume. More »
- Hillary Dumps Another Tall Tale
  
  newser | CNN | Apr 7, 08 5:02 AM CDT
  
  Another story Hillary Clinton has told repeatedly on the campaign trail turns out to be untrue, CNN reports. This one is about a pregnant woman from Ohio who dies after being turned away from a hospital because she has no health insurance. A spokesman for the hospital has denied the account, saying the woman had insurance and received care. Clinton, who was apparently told the story while visiting Ohio, has since dropped the anecdote. More »
- Ohio Hospital Contests a Story Clinton Tells
  
  New York Times | Apr 5, 08
  
  Over the last five weeks, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York has featured in her campaign stump speeches the story of a health care horror: an uninsured pregnant woman who lost her baby and died herself after being denied care by an Ohio hospital because she could not come up with a $100 fee. The woman, Trina Bachtel, did die last August, two weeks after her baby boy was stillborn at O’Bleness Memorial Hospital in Athens, Ohio. But hospital administrators said Friday that Ms. Bachtel was under the care of an obstetrics practice affiliated with the hospital, that she was never refused...
- Nic Cage Not a Chihuahua Thief
  
  newser | Daily Telegraph (UK) | Apr 4, 08 11:24 AM CDT
  
  It’s official: Nicolas Cage is not a chihuahua kleptomaniac, former co-star Kathleen Turner admits. Turner settled a libel lawsuit with Cage, confessing that she’d lied when she wrote that Cage had been “arrested twice for drunk-driving and, I think, for stealing a dog.” Turner and her co-defendants agreed to pay Cage’s legal fees and make a “substantial” donation to charity. More »
- Formula One Boss Denies Nazi Theme in Hooker Orgy
  
  newser | Times (UK) | Apr 3, 08 2:40 AM CDT
  
  Formula One Racing chief Max Mosley has denied that the videotaped sado-masochistic orgy he participated in with five prostitutes was Nazi-themed. Mosley claims he spoke German during the orgy simply because several of the call-girls were German, not as a part of Nazi role playing, as the News of the World had reported. Mosley is taking legal action against the paper for the story, reports the Times of London. More »
March 2008
- LA Times Apologizes for Diddy-Tupac Story
  
  newser | Los Angeles Times | Mar 27, 08 4:54 PM CDT
  
  The Los Angeles Times today admitted the paper was duped in its story alleging that Sean "Diddy" Combs was connected to the 1994 murder of fellow rapper Tupac Shakur. The reporter and editor responsible for the story apologized and said parts of it were based on FBI records that turned out to have been fabricated by an imprisoned con man. More »
- Story Linking Diddy to Tupac Shooting a Hoax
  
  newser | The Smoking Gun | Mar 26, 08 2:13 PM CDT
  
  The Los Angeles Times was duped into reporting that associates of Sean “Diddy” Combs were involved in the 1994 shooting of rapper Tupac Shakur, the Smoking Gun reports. The paper based last week's story on FBI reports fabricated by a long-time con man who has long sought to insinuate himself in the rap world. More »
- Top Admiral Fired for Lying to DoD Probe
  
  newser | Navy Times | Mar 25, 08 9:37 AM CDT
  
  The Navy has fired a vice admiral for giving the Department of Defense "false and misleading information" during an investigation, reports the Navy Times. John Stufflebeem, the director of the Navy staff, lied to an inquiry into an alleged inappropriate relationship while serving as a military adviser to former President Bush in 1990, reports the Navy Times. More »
- Clinton 'Misspoke' About Dodging Bosnia Sniper
  
  newser | CBS | Mar 25, 08 4:47 AM CDT
  
  Hillary Clinton had to dodge sniper fire when she landed at the start of a goodwill tour of Bosnia in 1996—at least that’s what the senator said last week. But after an archive CBS news video showed the then-first lady smiling and waving without a single bullet whizzing by, her campaign conceded that she “misspoke.” One aide admitted the situation “was not quite as dramatic" as Clinton put it. More »
- How to Fake a Memoir
  
  newser | Slate | Mar 12, 08 4:03 PM CDT
  
  Misha Defonseca's memoir left a sticky trail of lies about escaping Nazis and living with wolves. (It turns out wolf saliva isn't an antiseptic.) Tired of careless fabricators, Slate writes a how-to for aspiring fakers: Keep it vague. Dates are verifiable—"awhile" is not. Watch out for tattling siblings. Revenge can be dirty, especially if you kill them off in your faux memoir (as Margaret Seltzer recently discovered). Check your paper trail. That goes for elementary school registers, which gave away Defonseca's real whereabouts. More »
- Court: Italian Women Can Lie About Adultery
  
  newser | BBC | Mar 8, 08 3:05 PM CST
  
  Italian adulterers have made their bed, and now the country’s top appeals court says they can lie in it: The Court of Cassation has ruled that married women can tell fibs to cover up an affair to protect their honor, the BBC reports. The judgment stems from the case of a woman who was convicted of giving false testimony to police. More »
- Cabbie Charged in Abandoned Baby Hoax
  
  newser | New York Daily News | Mar 3, 08 11:35 AM CST
  
  A New York taxi driver who lied about finding an infant girl abandoned in his cab was unrepentant yesterday, saying he “did the right thing,” the Daily News reports. New Yorkers' hearts, softened by the story of "baby Lourdes," hardened Saturday when Klever Sailema was arrested and charged with filing a false police report. More »
- All the News That's Fit to Invent: The Onion Hits 20
  
  newser | CBS | Mar 2, 08 4:51 PM CST
  
  When a wisecracking newspaper was born in a Wisconsin dorm room in 1988, no one predicted it would one day be installed in sleek Manhattan offices, producing fake print and television news, and rolling in dough. But the Onion's president isn’t surprised, CBS reports. The paper “attracts this really great audience. And advertisers really wanna reach these people." More »
February 2008
- FBI Begins Clemens Probe
  
  newser | Bloomberg | Feb 28, 08 5:59 PM CST
  
  The FBI today began investigating whether Roger Clemens committed perjury when he told Congress that he never used performance-enhancing drugs, Bloomberg reports. The agency opened a preliminary review one day after a House panel told the Justice Department it suspected Clemens of lying. The pitcher insists he never took steroids or human growth hormone, but his former trainer says otherwise. More »
- China: Sorry for This Fake Photo
  
  newser | Wall Street Journal | Feb 22, 08 5:12 PM CST
  
  China’s state-run news service has apologized for running—and honoring—a doctored photo that aided the government’s argument about a new train line's environmental impact. The 2006 image showed antelopes frolicking under Tibetan tracks, purportedly demonstrating that the beloved beasts weren’t affected by them. It worked, until sleuths noticed the telltale signs of Photoshop, the Wall Street Journal reports. More »