Gullible reporters

[elmwood]

http://charleston.net/stories/041303/spo_13protest.shtml

Scroll down to the bottom, where you'll read ...

"Throughout the morning, law enforcement officers stood on the perimeter of the five-acre field. At no point did the protest turn violent, though officers escorted Heywood Jablome away after he held up a sign directly in front of Burk that read "Make me dinner" before shouting "Oprah rules."

Sheriff Mike Hunt (http://www.mikehuntforsheriff.com) did not offer any comment.

[Scarlett67]

While proofreading, I once caught a textbook author referring in complete seriousness to (I paraphrase) "the kite company founded by Ben Franklin's brother, Dowe Cheatum and Howe." :D

(I traced the passage's source to a Web page that used the name as an obviously fictional example -- but my author fell for it. And so did the copyeditor and everyone else who had read the passage up to that point!)

[bibliophile]

We once had a caption in my paper of a high school kid who told the photographer his name was Mike Oxbig. No one thought anything of it, and the reporter [it wasn't me, I swear] captioned it and the photo ran. Then the phone calls started, I think there were only three or four calls.

Embarassing? Sure, but it was funny as hell. If nothing else, we sold a few extra copies to the kid and his friends that week.

[Padeye]

some things never change, even over two thousand yearss.

"It's a joke name, like 'Biggus Dickus.'"

[Mullinator]

Just to bring the OP full circle, the actual person that held up the sign can be found here. (http://www.99x.com/index.asp?url=%2Fstation%2Fjocks%2Frich%2Findex%2Easp)