Check your sources. Noone will do it for you

[Hermit]

Last September the Levitt Institute issued a press release titled Deception Detection Across Australian Populations. Many radio stations, print media and internet news sites took the story up and reported it as if it was legitimate. It wasn't. Here is a blow by blow account on how the hoax was perpetrated.

What amuses me the most, is that not quite half way down the 10 page press release, while describing the methods employed in course of the research, it actually says: "These results were completely made up to be fictitious material through a process of modified truth and credibility nodes." This rather obvious flag regarding the veracity of the release did not stop dozens of mass media outlets from reporting it as if it was the result of bona fide research. I also enjoyed the irony of the topic ostensibly researched: gullibility.