Herald reporter gets fooled by fake Russians

It's easy to sit here and say it never should have happened, but based on the way we all do business, how exactly do you safeguard against something like this?

http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2010/10/miami_herald_issues_worlds_lam.php

The correction, however, is pretty dumb.

This is one link, but it's all over the web now.

One note: Deadspin said looking up the rapper she mentioned might have been a start.

http://deadspin.com/5663140/nba-is-big-in-russia-says-article-quoting-people-pretending-to-be-russians

The Google cache version of the story is linked off that page. The original has been taken down.

 

Ask for drivers' licenses? I mean, at least it was in person. It's more of a risk if you're on the phone or something.

 

Maybe asking for an ID just simply has to be SOP these days.

 

I think for something like that, when you're just pulling people from random out of a crowd and they're obviously relatively young? I think you have to.

Just say "I need to verify the spelling of your name."

 

Boy, obviously the first thing I thought of...

 

I have to admit, our paper has fallen for something like this.

We had some contentious development on "environmentally sensitive land" here and the protestors were out in large numbers. Several took over the development. It was nuts.

But our reporters were quoting these people left, right and centre even though a couple of us (me included) were pretty sure those speaking with us were giving us fake names.

Sure enough, I'm reading a magazine one day months after the protest and I recognize the name of one of the protestors, the one who was "media liason" for the group - only it wasn't him named in the mag, it was some little known, late 17th or 18th Century philosopher.

And I had been tipped off by some level headed protestors during the protest that the guy was using "the name of some philosopher no one's heard of."

I brought it up at work. Management never flinched.

I have no idea what we do next time we speak to these folks.

 

College runners routinely race 5Ks and 10Ks, usually during the summer, under fake names so they can accept prize money without the NCAA finding out.

 

Not a good day for my former peeps ... but Rojas' decision to run the ridiculous Q-ray story was far more egregious.

 

Now there's an idea. Sell press passes for the Podunk Press that say "Heywood *******."