There’s something so satisfying about tricking major news companies.
Portsmouth Ohio Official is a satirical Facebook pages that publishes funny, but fake, news stories. Most of them are painfully obvious, including this one, but that didn’t stop local news stations from jumping on the story and reporting without checking any sources.
The post read as follows:
***WANTED***
Billy Lee Eldridge, 46, of West Portsmouth has a warrant for his arrest for fraud and criminal possession of forged instruments. According to arrest report, Mr. Eldridge convinced The River Days committee that he was country artist Travis Tritt and accepted payment of $2,250.00 for a performance at this year’s River Days festival. He then tried the same scheme for The Scioto County Fair but was discovered as a fraud when they asked him to sing Here’s A Quarter. He panicked and fled. Last seen in the Lucasville bottoms. Message this page with info of his whereabouts.
Hysterical, right?
Well for CBS affiliates, Fox News affiliates, and other local news stations… not so much. They ran the story as a true story, and have now all had to either delete their articles, or admit that they were duped by a parody Facebook page.
Insert your best “T-R-O-U-B-L-E” joke here.
Even Travis himself weighed in on the hoax.
