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Pastimes : Business Wire Falls for April Fools Prank, Sues FBNers -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: EL KABONG!!! who wrote (2)	4/27/1999 3:38:00 AM
From: Bill Ulrich	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3795

That was "Wired". They were very fun whilst remaining professional: wired.com

To: EL KABONG!!! who wrote (2)	4/27/1999 12:52:00 PM
From: Jon Stept	Respond to of 3795

This reminds me of Murphy Brown and Dan Quayle... and how the formats of entertainment and news can get borrowed from each other and serve cross purposes. All news, Reuters, A&P, Business Wires, just like the major TV news channels, are geared for revenue generation and audience stickiness. I consider them more as a source of news and entertainment, certainly not a source of journalism or verified facts. They view reality through a very small window. Murphy Brown and other entertainment sources I consider a source of news as well as entertainment because they will explore fictional issues based on current events that mainstream news is afraid to touch. What would really be cool is a website with a series called the Wire to explore these issues in an entertainment format. Or even cross pollinating it on the TV in a series... hmmm, lots of possibilities. Business Wire's response to the pranksters has the potential to create a meaty feedback loop and it will be interesting if the web and internet are mature enough yet to gobble it up and a good test of the of the sophistication and saviness of cross communication between tv and the web and print and the web. Just my opinion. Jon :)

To: EL KABONG!!! who wrote (2)	4/27/1999 2:20:00 PM
From: PatiBob	Respond to of 3795

I believe this post goes over here. To: tonto (22630 ) From: PatiBob Tuesday, Apr 27 1999 10:35AM ET Reply # of 22641 Maybe a group of investors should sue Business Wire for releasing false releases that were false and misleading from the get go. I don't see any difference between what Jeff, Bill and Janice did as a joke, then what thousands of companies do each and every single day. JMO PB

To: EL KABONG!!! who wrote (2)	4/27/1999 9:35:00 PM
From: Angusb	Respond to of 3795

"BW apparently has no sense of humor. In my opinion, this whole thing is over the fact that they're embarrassed as all get out to have had their verification procedures (or lack thereof) exposed by a bunch of amateur posters in an internet chat room. In my opinion, BW's lawsuit is precipitously close to a SLAPP lawsuit, and if a court should see it that way, then the defendants in this action have clear recourse for a counter action. We shall all closely observe the outcome of these legal proceedings." I think there's no question that the suit is a SLAPP but I would advise against any counter action. BW probably does, deep inside, have a sense of humour but they are likely scared to death that this kind of thing will get out of control and damage their 'business' image. Next think you know there will be marriage proposals and the like put out over BW. Sure there's all kinds of fraudulent PR put out over the wire but it would be unfair to ask BW to take on the regulatory role that is the SEC's responsibility. I strongly suspect that this whole thing will be quickly dropped since it is clear that there is no real legal case and the action to date will deter further jokes at BW's expense.