National
THE BATTALION Page 5
TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1981
Hoaxes include pickles, dresses
Pranks plague media
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United Press International
NEW YORK — Years ago, it was a carefully
orchestrated California campaign to provide
clothing for animals.
More recently, it was a claim from Connec
ticut that a red, white and blue pickle had been
developed. It was revealed, appropriately, on
the Fourth of July, 1979.
: In May, a pill said to be made from pulve
rized cockroaches and offering help for acne
and anemia sufferers, was previewed with ela
borate publicity in New York.
Washington television stations broadcast
reports in June that the city’s mayor had been
wounded, based on calls from someone claim
ing to be an aide.
^ On the eve of the royal wedding of Prince
Charles and Lady Diana last week, a presti
gious fashion daily published a sketch of the
wedding gown, based on a communique
mysteriously slipped under the door of a Lon
don writer.
* All of the revelations turned out to be
hoaxes, the work of pranksters.
?> Reporters and editors have always had to
guard against false stories from outside
Sources. Earlier this year, a fictitious story
caused a Pulitzer Prize to be returned, and
demonstrated the vulnerability of the media to
false stories by its own members.
When Washington Post reporter Janet
Cook’s prize-winning story about an 8-year-old
drug addict was discovered to be untrue, she
was forced to resign. When the authenticity of
New York Daily News columnist Michael Da
ly’s column about riots in Ireland was ques
tioned, he also resigned.
I When a journalist is caught perpetrating a
hoax, he or she is fired or disciplined. When
people outside the media succeed in getting a
false story published, there are few — if any—
penalties for the perpetrator.
A story distributed May 28 by United Press
International reported on the alleged “cock
roach hormone’’ health pill developed and dis
tributed by “Josef Gregor,” who claimed to be
an entomologist. UPI subsequently disco
vered Gregor really is Joseph Skaggs, 35, an
instructor at the School of Visual Arts in New
York City.
Skaggs freely admits he is a painter and a
“performance artist” who uses the media as his
“medium” to show how easily they can be
duped. He said he spent several thousand dol
lars and rented an office for a month as head
quarters for a research group he named Meta
morphosis. He enlisted friends and students to
pose as members of “a control group ” using the
pills.
“We were hoodwinked,” said UPI Manag
ing Editor Don Reed. “Despite a lot of check
ing prior to moving the story, we didn’t do
enough on this elaborate publicity stunt.”
Details about Lady Diana’s wedding dress
were a closely held secret until Women’s Wear
Daily published a front page sketch on the day
When people outside the media
succeed in getting a false story
published, there are few — if any
— penalties for the perpetrator.
before her marriage to Prince Charles. It was
based on what was described as a press release
from Buckingham Palace that described the
dress in elaborate detail, “slipped mysterious
ly under the door” of a London fashion jour
nalist.
Buckingham Palace quickly characterized
the WWD description as “a bogus and clever
hoax.”
It turned out 24 hours later the WWD de
scription had only the color of the gown cor
rect.
WWD editor Michael Coady said he still is
not sure whether WWD was duped.
“We never said it was the dress,” Coady
said. “The headline over the article in WWD
_ says Ts this the dress?’ and then we said ‘Is the
document authentic?’ It could very well have
been a hoax, but it could have been an early
press release, I’m not certain.”
On the night of June 29, a man identifying
himself as calling from the Mayor’s Command
Center in Washington telephoned broadcas
ters and told them Mayor Marion Barry had
been shot and critically wounded near his
home.
He said Barry was being taken to Andrews
Air Force Base. Obviously familiar with back
stop procedures, he gave a telephone number
for the center, which is a source of information
during emergencies.
WRC-TV and and WDVM-TV broadcast the
report. UPI moved a story quoting one of the
stations. All were forced to retract minutes
later.
Confusing the situation was the accidental
shooting of a police officer near Barry’s home.
Barry himself was away from home and police
and other aides could shed no light on the
report he had been wounded.
Police and the District of Columbia Corpor
ation Counsel say their extensive investigation
leads them to suspect a disgruntled former
employee in the Mayor’s Command Center,
but they could find no law that was violated.
Photo by Dan C. Sullins
Play begins Thursday
Jim Burford tells his wife, played by Sharon
Barrow, exactly why he doesn’t love New
York in a rehearsal scene from “Prisoner
of Second Avenue.” The MSC Summer
Dinner Theater show is scheduled to run
August 6-8 in 201 MSC.
Underground missile system in limbo
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Despite reports the
administration will scrap plans to house the
MX missile system in deserts and place
them instead on huge planes, Defense Sec
retary Caspar Weinberger says no final de
cision has been made.
Military sources told United Press Inter
national that Weinberger has decided to
junk the underground land-based launch
planned for the Utah and Nevada desert.
Monday, “Aviation Week & Space Tech
nology” magazine reported that Weinber
ger wants an airborne version of the new
MX intercontinental nuclear missile in
place of “shell game” basing in those two
western states.
The 71-foot missile with its 10 indepen
dently targeted warheads would be placed
at first aboard a fleet of giant C-5 transports
and later aboard a newly designed, prop
eller-driven aircraft dubbed “Big Bird,” the
weekly said.
Weinberger, appearing Sunday on
ABC’s “Issues and Answers”, insisted no
“firm, final” decision has been made on
where or how the controversial MX missile
system will be deployed.
“There’s a very firm commitment to an
MX system and by that I mean a streng
thened, improved, much more accurate
missile,” Weinberger said.
“It’s necessary because the Soviets dur
ing the past few years have greatly streng
thened and improved their missiles, and
this would give us a greatly increased deter
rent capability.
“If we stay with older missiles that are
not as accurate and are very vulnerable to
Soviet attack, we lose that much of our ...
ability to deter an attack on us, which is of
course the object of the whole thing.”
The Washington Post reported Saturday
that Weinberger will suggest, and Presi
dent Reagan is prepared to recommend,
that the new missiles be placed aboard air
craft.
The Pentagon and the White House im
mediately denied the report.
“The president has not made any final
decision,” White House spokesman Dave
Gergen told reporters Saturday.
But several military sources told UPI
Saturday there appears to be substance to
the report, although some of them called it
speculative.
And another official, who asked not to be
identified, said he would be “awfully sur
prised” if the recommendation was made to
implant the MX in the West.
The Air Force wants to build 4,600 mis
sile shelters in Nevada and Utah. Among
these shelters, 200 MX missiles would be
moved randomly to confuse Soviet
targeting.
Last March, Weinberger appointed a 15-
man panel of nongovernmental experts to
offer recommendations on where the MX
should be based, with alternatives includ
ing placement on land, air or sea.
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Union refuses
5
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., is fuming over Labor
Secretary Raymond Donovan’s refusal to investigate whether Teams
ters Union President Roy Lee Williams, charged with trying to bribe a
senator, should be removed from office.
“It is a hands-off policy, designed more to protect the interests of
the union hierarchy than the rank and file,” said Nunn, whose Senate
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation’s had requested the in
quiry.
In a letter to the subcommittee, released by Nunn, Donovan said he
had no authority to investigate Williams. He said he was acting on the
advice of department solicitor Tim Ryan.
Williams, elected to a five-year term as president of the two
million-member union in June, pleaded innocent June 12 to federal
charges that he attempted to bribe a senator.
Williams is accused of conspiring with four others to offer 5.8 acres of
Las Vegas property at a bargain price to Sen. Howard Cannon, D-
Nev., in return for help in defeating a trucking deregulation bill last
year.
Before that indictment was issued, Nunn’s subcommittee asked the
Labor Department to call Williams in for questioning on whether he
should remain as Teamsters leader because he invoked the 5th
Amendment 23 times last August in refusing to answer questions
before the subcommittee about the union’s scandal-ridden Central
States Pension Fund.
; The subcommittee wanted the department to seek removal of Wil
liams from office for violating his reponsibilities if he failed to adequ
ately answer allegations that he was closely tied to organized crime
figures.
J Donovan responded in a July 9 letter released Sunday by Nunn.
' The secretary said the Labor Management Reporting and Disclo
sure Act does not provide any procedure for removal of officers of
international unions by civil or administrative proceedings which
could be instituted by the Department of Labor.
DIETING?
Even though we do not prescribe diets,
we make it possible for many to enjoy a
nutritious meal while they follow their
doctors orders. You will be delighted
with the wide selection of low calorie,
sugar free and fat free foods in the
Souper Salad Area, Sbisa Dining Center
Basement.
OPEN
Monday through Friday 10:45 AM-1:45 PM
QUALITY FIRST
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Jewelry
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Culpepper Plaza
INCOMING FRESHMEN!
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