Blogs

The Chain Gang

By Brian Montopoli

February 22, 2007 / 9:16 AM EST / CBS News

(AP)

From the great-moments-in-journalism files: An Australian reporter went on the air with a story about an elderly woman who had supposedly chained herself to a cupboard in order to stay in her nursing home. Reporter Nicholas Boot discussed how "this feisty 84-year-old is refusing to budge" from her room.

Powerful stuff. If only it were true. Government officials went to the nursing home to investigate, only to discover that the whole thing was staged. According to a spokesman for the Minister for Ageing, "the television crew had brought the chains for the interview, then taken them away again afterwards…the process of chaining her up had been instigated by the television program."

The host of the program later apologized to viewers "if you felt misled." Felt? Anyway, Boot has been suspended.