Comments on: Lightfoot hoax leaves many questions

By: Why the media won’t learn from false death reports – Fagstein

Why the media won’t learn from false death reports – Fagstein — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 08:53:13 +0000

[...] this all sounds a lot like what happened to Gordon Lightfoot in February, you aren't imagining it. There are many aspects of the two obiticides that are [...]

By: Why Hamelin? – Fagstein

Why Hamelin? – Fagstein — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 06:14:33 +0000

[...] with the Gordon Lightfoot story, my issue isn't so much with the media getting the story wrong as their attempts to cover it up [...]

By: We need a news cooling period « Edward Bilodeau

We need a news cooling period « Edward Bilodeau — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 02:14:11 +0000

[...] February 21, 2010 by ebilodeau You may have heard the story of the recent hoax announcing the death of singer Gordon Lightfoot. Someone called a friend of Lightfoot’s claiming to be his grandson and passing on the news that Lightfoot had died. From there, the friend, a trustworthy source, passed the news on to his wife, who told others… eventually the story ended up in major news papers and news services. For the full details and links to the coverage and after coverage, head over to Steve Faguy’s blog. [...]

By: Capri

Capri — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 23:23:08 +0000

As a Gordon Lightfoot fan myself, I find this and other death hoaxes particularly sickening. Do these pranksters realize - oh but then, they are hoaxters, they don't give a crap how tasteless it is to wish death on people just to get a few cheap thrills at the expense of the public and the frantic story-hungry media.

By: David Pinto

David Pinto — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 20:14:32 +0000

Maybe Gordon will write a song about this.

By: Jack B.

Jack B. — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:29:55 +0000

It doesn't matter what the original sources were. For any story that might generate a few clicks on the publisher's website, it's simply "copy, paste, publish" these days. And with a fast medium like Twitter it is just getting worse. Because of incidents like this, I've simply stopped giving the "respectable media" any more respect than the average blogger. Both have the same likelihood to publish false information these days so there is simply no more difference to make out. And as far as pulling stories without any kind of notice goes, that's just another hint at the fact that many of those media outlets don't even have the courage to stand up to the mistakes they set out. In fact, I'd give some bloggers much more respect than any of those media machines because they will not simply try to make their mistakes disappear as though they had never happened.

By: Rich

Rich — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 04:55:15 +0000

So ole Gordo gets to read his own obituary while he's still among the quick... That's a pretty shabby way to treat such a treasured national icon.

Here's hoping he gets a good chuckle out of this, or subject matter for one more wry tune, or time enough at least to disinherit the douche who started all this. What a fiasco.

By: Jim J.

Jim J. — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:01:39 +0000

Once again, the race to be first out of the gate with a story produces predicable results.