10-20-2009 LOCAL WRITER RECENTLY PROFILED 'IMPOSTORIZATORS' The folks who pulled off the hoax press conference pretending they were officials from the Chamber of Commerce coming out in favor of global warming have done these types of things many times in the past. In fact, Overland Park writer Dan Lybarger did an extensive piece about the "Yes Men" for Cineaste magazine titled "When Andy Bichlbaum Said Yes: How a Video Programmer Became an Activist and Filmmaker." Lybarger, a former Pitch, Lawrence-Journal World and sometimes Kansas City Star film reviewer, interviewed Andy Bichlbaum prior to a screening of his 2009 movie "The Yes Men Save the World" at a documentary film festival this summer in Columbia, MO. UMKC film instructor Sarah Price also co-directed an earlier documentary by the Yes Men. Link to Lybarger's article: http://www.cineaste.com/articles/when-andy-bichlbaum-said-yes-how-a-video-programmer-became-an-activist-and-filmmakerweb-exclusive
THE BOTTOM LINE: It was an amazing hoax pulled off with military precision. If not for a stupid reporter going to the real Chamber of Commerce offices rather than the Press Club, it likely would have sucked in virtually all the major media. As it stood, Reuters, the Washington Post and others did fall for it and had to later print retractions. The fake group said the Chamber was now coming out in favor of climate change. Fake press releases sent to the media that linked to a fake Chamber of Commerce site all added to the hoax. 10-20-2009
GROUP STAGES FAKE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PRESS CONFERENCE
By David A. Fahrenthold Washington Post Staff Writer Will the real U.S. Chamber of Commerce please stand up? Environmental activists held a hoax press conference Monday morning, pretending to be the business group -- and pretending to announce that the chamber was dropping its opposition to climate-change legislation now in Congress. The event, complete with fake handouts on chamber letterhead, at least a couple of fake reporters, and a podium adorned with the chamber logo, broke up when a spokesman from the real chamber burst in (see video). What followed was a spectacle not usually seen in the John Peter Zenger Room at the National Press Club: two men in business suits shouting at one another, each calling the other an impostor and demanding to see business cards. "This guy is a fake! He's lying! This is a stunt that I've never seen before," said Eric Wohlschlegel, an official at the actual Chamber of Commerce, who said he'd heard about the hoax event from a reporter who'd mistakenly shown up at the chamber's headquarters. The fake Chamber of Commerce official, who called himself "Hingo Sembra," did not give his real name to reporters, saying only that he represented a coalition of climate activists. He appeared, by comparing photos on the Internet, to be a member of the activist-prankster group called The Yes Men. They have staged several hoaxes to draw attention to what they believe is slow progress in fighting climate change. The group's last big stunt was to print fake copies of the New York Post last month during a U.N. climate conference, bearing the headline "We're Screwed." Asked if he was one of The Yes Men, he merely said, "Who?" Link to entire story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/19/AR2009101901651.html
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