March 10, 2007

Is Smith story a hoax?

Did Anna Nicole Have A Secret Love Child?

Newspaper Prints Story About A Man Who Claims Anna Nicole Smith Bore His SonThe paper has printed phony stories in the past in honor of April Fool's Day.

Most of the New Times Web site's readers commenting on the article said that they were hip to the hoax. A few pointed to the paper's history of phony stories, as well as several "facts" in the article.

Charles Tatum is the name on the byline of the far-fetched story, which is the only article on the New Times Web site with that name.

Tatum—or at least a man at the New Times offices claiming to be Tatum—spoke to The Showbuzz insisting that the story was true and that he went to Soto's home.

"(Soto) spins quite a tale," Tatum said. "He has documents to back it up and photos. I don't know. I'm not an expert in documents, (but) he had enough for me to believe that he was who he said he was."

But, the Tohono O'odham nation may not appreciate the joke.

Matt Smith, a spokesman for the Tohono O'ohoma tribe, tells The Showbuzz that tribal leaders are not happy that the tribe is mentioned so prominently in the New Times article. They're also not thrilled about the photo of Soto posing with a bottle of whiskey and othere references to drinking in the article.

On the other hand, the reservation is building a new resort and casino, so perhaps they're actually in on the joke for the publicity.
Update:  A lot of blogs have picked up the "Soto the love child story," but no one has definitively said whether it's true or not.

2 comments:

writerfella said...

Writerfella here --
That all depends. Is a hoax ALSO a stereotype? Hoax rhymes with jokes...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'

Anonymous said...

Hey, Rob, you questioned it from the start (on your 3/8 post), and we put a couple of additional nails in it together. Don't be so modest!

BTW, I think it is sad-but-not-surprising that the New Times is trying to perpetuate the spoof by putting the "reporter" on the phone to back it up. That might hurt them more than doing a spoof (on a very spoofable topic). Or, it should.

--azpaull