News

The Canadian satirical magazine Frank fooled most of the people for most of the past month during which it had a hoax website up and running. Most notably the hoax took in Conrad Black himself, who after corresponding by e-mail with the site's creator Alastair Smith (in truth, Frank editor/publisher Michael Bate) concluded that it was genuine and invited Mr. Smith and his group of like-minded, Bay Street, thirtysomethings to his home for cocktails. (As part of the pose, the supporters were planning a chartered jet "Caravan to Chicago" to attend Lord Black's trial on fraud and other charges — all of which he denies — and proposed wearing black ribbons of support. In an e-mail exchange with Mr. Smith, Lord Black wrote: "I am again flattered by such a thing. I will give you all CONRAD WILL WIN shirts when you are here.")

Since the prank was revealed by Frank magazine earlier this week in an 11-page package in its latest issue, some of the news organizations taken in by Frank have hurried to cover — ed: manage, surely — the news. The U.S. industry publication Editor & Publisher — which interviewed by e-mail the fictitious Mr. Smith — concluded it was a "serious undertaking." This week, E&P's editor at large Mark Fitzgerald writes under the heading "Pro Conrad Black Web Site Fesses Up to Hoax" that "E&P's role in publicizing the website is recounted at some length."

Mr. Bate, who said yesterday that various broadcasters have also booked him for interviews, explained that the ruse was necessary because "Lord Black is one of the few satiric assets we have left in this frozen backwater and we are eager for his safe return."

Yesterday, the London Evening Standard highlighted the charade in Londoner's Diary, reporting: "Meanwhile, Black, who has been holed up at home in Toronto for much of the time as he prepares for his trial, has been duped by Canadian satirical magazine Frank. The new issue of the magazine, which calls Black 'Lord Tubby,' has printed a series of e-mails between the peer and a fictitious campaign group that supposedly supports him. Naturally, Black did not realize he was being set up and there is a flurry of excited replies from him, inviting a 'Mr. Smith' to come over to Conrad's home to discuss how they can back him." As well, yesterday, the Guardian newspaper in London made mention of the prank. In early February, the paper's Andrew Clark reported: "In his hour of need the Canadian-born peer can at least count on the support of a coalition of admirers who are clubbing together on the Internet."

And the National Post published a positive item on its website about supportlordblack.com — calling it one of "the Internet's underappreciated sites." Yesterday, a CanWest story originating out of Ottawa revealed that it was all a fiction.

Other news organizations that bought the hoax were Canadian Business magazine, New York magazine (under the headline: Wealthy Objectivists to Hit Road for Conrad Black) and the Toronto Star. A number of other non-journalists also were caught in the Frank web.

And the Globe? We're as much in a glass house as any other paper, but this time reporter Paul Waldie's skepticism prevailed. In Frank's retelling of the month-long saga, it refers to him as being "like some journalistic boy scout ..... determined to talk to someone before committing himself to a story. We ducked that one by sending Alastair overseas. High above the Pacific, he wonders how guys like Waldie ever get anything in print."