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| Fake: realistic-looking Drudge Report headline |
Who had the money and motivation to perpetrate a massive hoax claiming that "megachurch" pastor and best-selling author Joel Osteen had "rejected Christ" -- a hoax that included multiple websites, social media accounts, realistic Internet "screenshots" (including ones supposedly from CNN and Drudge Report)?
Huffington Post talked to the as-of-yet unnamed man behind the discrediting campaign, who had some very interesting and "telling" things to say, including that he did it "to test viral media markets":
"I wanted to send Joel a message, to hopefully motivate him to talk about more serious subjects, such as Monsanto, GMOs, the poisons in our food and water, alternative cancer cures. He has a worldwide stage he isn't using to do enough good, but rather he's wafting lightweight sermons peppered with cliches across the Sunday airwaves."Two interesting things here. First, that this person appears to be -- or is purposely presenting himself to be -- some sort of "conspiracy nut." Second, that he is apparently so social media/business-savvy that he can use the term "viral media markets."
Why would a person supposedly from the "fringe" also be so fluent in hardcore online marketing terminology? Why would he care?
There is more here than meets the eye.
As for the perpetrator of the hoax, he defiantly claims he will continue it and has his own lawyers ready to face Osteen.
Where did this dude get all the money to have "lawyers at the ready?"
I do believe this hoax was, as the man said, a "test." It is a test to gauge how gullible the American public is, and how much they can be manipulated online.
Expect more realistic hoaxes in the future -- not just concerning Christian televangelists, but all sorts of different ideologies and movements.
