Fake NY Times Article Supporting Wikileaks Fools Publication's Own Reporters
A fake NY Times article has been published fooling readers into believing that the highly respected newspaper's editorial was putting its weight and support behind Wikileaks and the organization's First Amendment rights.
The fake op-ed article was alleged to be written by Bill Keller and was titled "Wikileaks, a Post Postscript." The piece put forward a strong argument that no matter what people thought of Julian Assange, that Wikileaks needed to be supported and protected.
The op-ed was never actually published in the NY Times nor written by Keller, but was posted onto a fake NY Times page.
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The piece fooled many NY Times readers, and other publications. However, what has stunned most people is that the NY Times' own reporters were fooled by the fake posting, who re-tweeted the fake op-ed.
Part of the fake story read:
"As those of you who have followed my turbulent relationship with WikiLeaks and its Guru-In-Chief Julian Assange know, I am first in line when it comes to distancing myself from his brand of transparency without government checks and balances. You don't have to embrace Assange as a kindred spirit to believe that what he did in publishing those cables falls under the protection of the First Amendment. The backroom pressures by the Obama Administration's State Department to expand its financial blockade targeting WikiLeaks to include news organizations that host information from their trove of pilfered documents goes too far."
The fake piece was originally tweeted by an account under Bill Keller's name, which is the reason many were fooled, but that account was later deemed to be fake as well.
