Last Monday, Oct 19, the National Press Club was punked by a group posing as the National Chamber of Commerce. A group later discovered to be the ‘Yes Men,’ were there to explain why the Chamber changed its position on Obama’s global warming legislation called ‘cap and trade,’ saying that the Chamber now supports it. A man calling himself Hingo Sembra represented himself as a spokesperson for the Chamber of Commerce. And the media just ate it up.
The ‘real’ news organizations Reuters, CNN, the Washington Post, and New York Times fell for it, putting out their ‘news’ in much the same way Sam Donaldson did with Bush’s National Guard hoax.
This, after US Chamber of Commerce Director of Communications Eric Wohlschlegel interrupted the fake press conference and said this . . .
I’m with the US Chamber of Commerce. This is not an official US Chamber of Commerce event, so I don’t know under what pretenses you’re here. I know some of you in the press world, but this is a fraudulent press activity and a stunt.
If anyone has any questions, you want to talk to the real Chamber of Commerce, they can direct — direct your questions to me.
But it gets better. The hoaxer was given legitimacy on CNN (the most respected name in news) by ‘reporter’ Rick Sanchez. Sanchez was giving the fraud kudos for his acting. Giving this fraud yet another platform to push his, and the President’s agenda, meets all the criteria for CNN receiving the Most Ridiculous Item Of The Day award.
