Ace of Spades, 1; New York Post, 0

For several days I've gotten tips about this "lions killing midgets in Cambodian gladitorial games" story. I didn't link it, because I knew it was ass. For one thing, though it was supposedly a BBC story, the URL was not a BBC URL at all, but something like "newturf.com," which, last time I checked, was not the BBC domain.

For another thing-- it was just freaking retarded.

So here's the story-- now admitted to be a total fake -- as well as the pranksters' explanation as to how/why they did it.

But the NY Post seems to have fallen for it, and carries it (scan down) in a "Weird But True" column.

Weird, but also fake.

Sucky that the conservative-tilting NY Post fell for it, but hey. Lot of dopey liberals work there, same as at every other media organization.

Thanks to Ogre Gunner for the tip as to the long-suspected fraudulence of the story; thanks to TB for the NY Post tip.

Ahhhhh... the mainstream media. So much smarter and so much more reliable than bloggers, with all that "rigorous fact-checking."

PS: The page was apparently created to "settle" a rather stupid-but-fun dispute over whether 40 weaponless midgets could take a lion.

I don't need to tell you-- sometimes I can't fall asleep for my mind racing at this very question.

Confession: After the NY Post tip, I almost linked it, now thinking hey, maybe it was real.

Thank goodness I'm lazy and never got around to it.

Related Re-Link: A reader just asked me to re-post this, but I couldn't find it. But Dave From Garfield Ridge did find it,and suggests this would be as good a time as any to re-link "How Many Five Year Olds Could You Take In a Fight?

posted by Ace at 02:49 PM

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