This week the girls take aim at Fake News...
In tonight's episode, we discuss some news stories that were featured in headlines around the world however they turned out to be untrue.
But first, what were we drinking?
Amy was drinking Jen Pfeiffer Merlot
Bianca was drinking R Paulazzo Pinot Grigio
Sarah was drinking Brown Brothers Cienna
Amy opened tonight's discussion by talking about how back in the good old days you could trust your news sources and if they bothered to print it then chances are it's the truth. Sadly this is no longer the case. It's gotten so bad that Gen Z no longer believes anything unless they see it with their own eyes.
Putting her jaded rant aside, Amy then discussed the story of a British model, Chloe Ayling, who was allegedly kidnapped whilst on a photo shoot in Milan, Italy.
In 2017 Ayling was allegedly abducted by two men who drugged the young woman then tied her to furniture to prevent her escape. After many days and a failed attempt at ransom demands, one of Ayling's captors took pity on her and drove her to the English embassy.
This is where the story gets a little strange. Ayling's abductor turned rescuer decided to accompany Ayling into the embassy after taking her out for breakfast. After being questioned by the police, the story emerged that Ayling's rescuer was in fact one of her captors.
Her captors were arrested and Ayling returned to the UK to a sea of media requesting interviews after what appeared to be a traumatic kidnapping.
Ayling's story she told the press was inconsistent and she did not appear to behave like someone who had just escaped a traumatic event. So much so that members of the media began to openly question if she was kidnapped at all.
Ayling's captors also added fuel to the media fire by alleging that Ayling knew what was occurring the whole time and that they had orchestrated the ordeal in order to advance Ayling's modeling career.
Ayling denied that she knew that her kidnapping was a hoax and maintained that she feared for her life during the kidnapping. Although it was later revealed that CC footage of Ayling and one of her captors showed the pair walking through a local town laughing and holding hands.
No matter whether you believed Ayling or not it is accepted that her abductors were not who they said they were and the intention was to advance Ayling's modeling career, not sell her on the black market as a sex slave as they threatened.
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| Chloe Ayling discussing her ordeal with the press |
Sarah couldn't quite let our history episode from last week go and decided to discuss fake news throughout history.
She first discussed the outrage expressed by Attorney General Dudley Ryder who took aim at media outlets who printed false reports of the death of King George the second in the mid-1700s.
Sarah then discussed an earlier occurrence of fake news which happened in 1693. William Anderton was tried and convicted for high treason when he published two falsehoods designed to insight the population to rebel against the current monarch.
We then skipped ahead to 1803 when Britain was preparing to end the Treaty of Amendments and declare war on France.
Sir Charles Price, Lord Mayor of London received a letter allegedly written by Lord Hawkesbury who informed the Mayor that the dispute with France was settled and war between the countries would not be declared.
Overjoyed with news, the Mayor took the letter to the stock exchange and stocks rose quickly by 5%. Alas, the letter was a hoax and the Treasury published an announcement in the evening paper declaring the letter to be fraudulent. Unfortunately, it was too late and many stocks were traded at inflated prices. The culprit has never been identified.
Chugging away happily on the history train, Sarah continued by discussing a series of articles published by the New York Sun in 1835. The articles claimed that well-known astronomer Sir John Herchel had seen images of inhabitants of the Moon using his hydro-oxygen magnifier.
Honestly, the pictures which Sarah found that were created from Herchel's descriptions look like Amy's last family holiday. Not life on the Moon.
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| Life on the Moon or Amy's family in Bali? |
The New York Sun printed a retraction to the article when they discovered that Herchel made the whole thing up.
Sarah then discussed the tale of two men "full of drink" who were arrested for selling fake newspapers that falsely stated the Ripper who stalked London had been caught. The Ripper was also the subject of fake news reports when another news vendor claimed that his papers had an article about four women who were victims of the Ripper that day.
Lastly, Sarah finished off with a tale of a radio program in 1938 that announced that aliens were attacking earth. This report was a part of the famous radio adaptation of the 1898 novel War of the Worlds. The producers of the radio program claimed they did not anticipate that people who listened to the program would actually believe it to be real.
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| News headlines covering the radio program |
Bianca finished us off tonight by discussing numerous reports of the deaths of some celebrities. Some celebrities tend to "die" more often than others leaving them to refute these claims and prove they are still alive.
In true Bianca style, she had some "bonus" reported deaths. However, she surprised both Sarah and Amy by covering them at the start of her segment, not at the end.
Bianca's bonus round covered:
Steve from Blues Clues - everyone thought the host of the popular children's show had died from a drug overdose. However, during the pandemic, Steve recorded a message to his fan base who are now young adults, and to all people out there putting rumors of his death to rest. It was the message we all needed to hear even if we didn't know it.
Betty White - Sadly the world lost this Queen of all Queens in 2021. Prior to her actual death, Ms. White was the subject of many death rumors. So many that a fan decided to create a Go Fund Me page to raise money to prevent the announcement of Ms. White's death until it actually happened. We still don't understand how someone would achieve this.
Bianca then discussed the following celebrity deaths which turned out to be fake news:
Tanya Roberts - The actress who broke out in the 1985 Bond film-A View to a Kill and later appeared in the sitcom "That 70s Show" was falsely reported as dead in January 2021. This was confirmed by her publicist and manager then was retracted by both one day later.
Bob Dylan - Fear not classic rock fans! Bob Dylan is still alive contrary to the reports that he died in 2019.
Paul McCartney - Conspiracy lovers will enjoy Bianca's discussion of the popular theory that McCartney died in 1966 and since then a look-alike has been posing as the famous Beetle. Amy and Sarah were not convinced.
Alice Cooper- In 1973 the rocker was reported to have died during a mishap with a theatrical element at one of his concerts. Cooper later issued a statement confirming he was "alive, and drunk as usual".
Avril Lavigne - In 2003 rumors circulated that Lavigne had taken her own life after the death of her Grandfather. Twitter gave fuel to the conspiracy fire in 2017 claiming that the person the media believed to be Lavigne was actually a look-alike in an elaborate cover-up of the singer's death in 2003.
Taylor Swift - Sadly the singer was the subject of numerous rumors in 2009 which spread like wildfire on media sources. In 2016 a Melbourne artist caused a storm painting a large mural of the singer with the caption Taylor Swift 1989 - 2016. Of course, old Swifty was not dead as we know.
Russel Crowe - The Gladiator star took rumors of his death head-on in 2010 by tweeting "Unable to answer tweets, fell off a mountain in Austria, all over red rover. Don't know how I got there, but the media is never wrong. G'Bye".
Justin Bieber - Bieber has been reported to be dead more times than Bianca has been drunk on this podcast (that's a lot!). Luckily for the Beebs he's alive and well. Can't say the same for Bianca's liver though.
Macaulay Culkin - The 90s icon was targeted by death rumors in 2014. He debunked the reports by taking to Instagram and posting pictures of himself "Weekend at Burnies" style.
Axl Rose - when rumors of the singer's death began circulating in 2014 he tweeted " If I'm dead, do I have to pay taxes?".
Miley Cyrus - has also been reported to have died on numerous occasions. In 2008 she was reportedly killed by a hit-and-run driver. In 2009, socialite Peaches Geldolf claimed that a friend sent her a text claiming that Cyrus had passed away. Lastly, in 2016 it was reported that Cyrus was found in a bathtub after an overdose of prescription medication.
Mark Twain- Leave it to humourist Mark Twain to poke fun at reports of his own demise. In 1897, Twain responded to a journalist's inquiry about his health by writing "a cousin of mine, was seriously ill two or three weeks ago in London, but is well now. The report of my illness grew out of his illness; the report of my death was an exaggeration".
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