You Can Make This Stuff Up

In this business, you sometimes come across news items and think, "You couldn't make that stuff up." Well, sometimes you can.

Code Pink today pulled off a hoax that pulled in Politico and a number of other news outlets when it ginned up a fake release, saying that Blackwater USA was creating a new "Department of Corporate Integrity" that would put the "mercy back in mercenary." That should have been a tip off.

"We do some silly things, but we didn't do that," said Anne Tyrrell, who is actually a spokesperson for Blackwater USA.

"We got a lot of international press," said Code Pink's Desiree Fairooz, most recently in the news for confronting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with fake blood on her hands. "It was a spoof."