The Times reports the sad breaking news for Malta’s faithful. The Papal visit has been called off.
An unexpected article on this edition of the Times. Was it the volcanic ash? Was it the Luqa monument? There’s something fishy… the Pope’s not coming and all we are left with are tarmacked roads and a general clean up. Hmmm not a bad bargain for April.
More to follow.
***
And the spoof goes on…
(posted at 1219CET – 2 hours after original J’accuse posting)
timesofmalta.com denies spoof story
timesofmalta.com is denying a story circulating on Facebook mimicking this website and claiming that the Papal visit has been cancelled.timesofmalta.com never published such a story.
Readers can clarify that the site they are reading is timesofmalta.com by reading the location bar of their browser
The timesofmalta.com denial refers to Facebook because the story also circulated from the J’accuse Facebook page. It’s not a mimic, it’s a clone – and yes, TOM is right – one of the first things you should check on a webpage is the address bar – especially when you are not sure if it may be true.
J’accuse, with a little help of tech savvy friends, has proven its point – you CAN make an impact if you want to. Pink gossip or spoof will sell and travel fast. There IS a reason why the Luqa phallus story was the second most read news item on bbc.com for a whole day.
J’accuse would like to thank Messers X & X for their invaluable contribution – they came up with a private idea and allowed us to go viral with it because we noticed it would be ideal to prove the point.
P.S. The link is back up!
27 replies on “Papal Visit Off – the Spoof that went Viral”
mitika din, Jacques :) nice one :)
Ehh din cajta goffa eh! il-link li tajt m’hix timesofmalta.com u l-iscreenshot imbabsa taparsi gejja mit-times. ehh Jacques ma kontx nistenniha minnghandek din!
Ghamilt 2 minuti nqalleb l-ahbarijiet kollha tat-Times qabel ma ndunajt li kienet cajta… aghar minn tal-ewwel t’April kienet din :)
http://www.bravo.lu
Hmmm based in luxembourg Jacques?
The Times actually bothered to deny the spoof story – http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100416/local/timesofmalta-com-denies-story
Qed tara Jacques – anki int irnexxielek tohloq kjass fuq xi haga :)
Haha. Ghandi kurzita nkun naf x’ghandek f’mohhok. Ejja ghax xbajt naghmel refresh jien ;-)
@ Malcolm do I really need to spell it out? Satyre, fishy, April it’s all there.
Now for the detractors of j’accuse theories. You want impact? You want effect? You want attention? It’s easy. Cause scandal, come up with a curious story or gossip. Within two hours the times were officially denying the spoof. Is this the attention that you want David Friggieri? A che pro?
Er, did anyone rebutt the claim that gossip sells? Newsstands are full of that stuff for some reason.
Hehe, kudos! (although I’d have added more explanation marks in the comments).
I do believe Jacques has made his point :) You sure got people’s attention that’s for sure..
@ Jacques – Ghandek mitt ragun. Qajjimt kjass b’din l-istorja li mhix vera, jew daqstant serja. Lezzjoni ghal DF u kull min isegwi il-blogosfera
Chapeu!
Haqqek prosit Gakki. lilek u lil kull min kien involut
Tal-ġenn wisq kienet!!! Prosit Jacques!
Tell me tell me…and the hits were?? Tajba!!! :-)
stratospheric :)
Hallik minn lezzjoni lil DF. Jekk kont imqar nicca ta’ provokazzjoni ckejkna ghall-‘event’ li holoq Jacques, kuntentissimu! Way to go j’accuse. I’ll be telling you more about the background to my ‘provocation’ if you care to hear it…bilateral communication this time. In the meantime, chapeau.
PS: amazing how ideas take unexpected twists and turns once you light the flame and sharp operators join the dots…
Telaq hu. Daqt jghidilna li l-ispoof kienet idea li nibtet go mohhu f’nofs lezzjoni tas-serbo-kroat. Daqs moratti in denial.
Din xoghol l-istess nies? Ghax hoax ohra qisha. X’toilet paper ha juza jonqos.
No seafood, spicy food or mushrooms for the Pope
If it is it wasn’t me.
Ok Jacques. Kudos e basta jekk tippreferi li naghlqu d-diskussjoni hawn. Prosit tal-programm.
Tutto il calcio giuventus per giuventus: Dopo “l’intervento da caterpillar” di Chiellini…il gol di Michael Douglas Maicon…peccato
Absolutely brilliant!
Hey! It almost turned out not to be a spoof at all!
Italian airspace is closed thanks to the drifting ash, with AirMalta operating just one flight from Rome (the one in which the Pope will travel) and Catania.
Looks like only northern Italian airspace was closed. Trust Maltastar for accuracy.
they would have blamed you jacques for jinxing the visit, if pope’s flight from rome had been cancelled too