Oops!
USA Today ran with a story Tuesday morning that “broke” news of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Cormac McCarthy‘s death.
The thing is, the 82-year-old All The Pretty Horses author is alive and well.
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The newspaper took their information from a random account purporting to be a publisher, though it was an unverified prank account — and very quickly, the media outlet was forced to walk back their ill-advised “reporting.”
Ch-ch-check out how it all went down (below):
BREAKING: We were totes first to report news based on a fake Twitter account.
UPDATE: We might’ve gotten that wrong. pic.twitter.com/0TLtVpe9fO
— Nick Bilton (@nickbilton) June 28, 2016
LOLz!!!
Maybe jumped the gun a little bit there, USA Today?!
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After all, almost immediately they had to walk it back when they discovered things weren’t as they seem with McCarthy’s supposed “death” (below):
UPDATE: Author Cormac McCarthy is not dead, his publicist says. A “rogue” Twitter account posted that information.
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) June 28, 2016
“Cormac McCarthy is alive and well. We have notified Twitter and we have notified our attorneys,” publicist tells @usatodaylife
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) June 28, 2016
#BREAKING Earlier report of death of author Cormac McCarthy is not true; publicist confirms he’s alive https://t.co/rjVUTCWL90
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) June 28, 2016
Great job, guys.
In fact, they got SO far ahead of themselves, that they even dropped a “Breaking News” banner on their website without actually checking the facts (below):
Craziest part of @USATODAY‘s fake tweet news is that they ran a banner on the site w/out calling to confirm if true. pic.twitter.com/NoNRub4S8N
— Nick Bilton (@nickbilton) June 28, 2016
Yikes!!!
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That’s all random, and ridiculous, and bad journalism, but it was McCarthy’s publisher who dropped the tweet of the day regarding the whole mess (below):
Cormac McCarthy is alive and well and still doesn’t care about Twitter.
— Penguin Random House (@penguinrandom) June 28, 2016
LOLz!!!
Maybe a certain news website should take a lesson there…
[Image via PNP/WENN.]
