Hoaxes and conspiracy theories AN OUTSIDERS VIEW Ken Fuller 03/09/2010

Hoaxes and conspiracy theories AN OUTSIDERS VIEW Ken Fuller 03/09/2010 Weeks ago this outsider, along with thousands of others, received an e-mail claiming that a lavish mansion in Salt Lake City — which, the accompanying photographs made clear, could only have been purchased by an extravagantly wealthy but tasteless person — was the property of none other than Sen. Manuel Villar. At the time, I filed it away in the mental compartment labeled “Questionable” and thought no more about it. Then I received it again. And again. The cheerleaders of other “presidentiables” were obviously making sure that no one missed this latest sensational exposure of the candidate the polls have consistently shown as being in second place to Noynoy Aquino, with the gap closing. Was I surprised last week, when a contrary e-mail arrived exposing the original as a hoax? Not really. It turns out that the photographs had been used in 2008, when it was claimed that they depicted the mansion of Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe. Prior to that, the same hoax had been directed at Pakistan’s Pervais Musharraf, former Nigerian ruler Ibrahim Babangida, Bollywood star Shahrukh Khan, and even the Health secretary of Azerbaijan!... MORE Source:  The Daily Tribune ALTERNATE URL: http://www.tribune.net.ph/commentary/20100309com5.html

COMMENTARY EDITORIAL To each his own FRONTLINE Opposition? ANALYSIS ‘Closet-Nazi’ in running for Austrian president NO HOLDS BARRED Still doing movies as if movies were still movies AN OUTSIDERS VIEW Hoaxes and conspiracy theories SILVER LINING Shop ‘til you drop