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Subscribe to RSSThe twisted tale of football star Manti Te'o's girlfriend -- who reportedly died this past year under tragic circumstances but then was found never to exist – has shocked and mystified people across America.
But this isn’t the first time we’ve had the collective wool pulled over our eyes. Here are some of the most successful hoaxes and tall tales in American history:
Balloon Boy: In April 2010, the nation was riveted as cable news networks cut into live programming to broadcast the runaway flight of a Fort Collins, Colo., family's experimental balloon, which supposedly contained their six-year-old son, Falcon Heene. The silver, helium-filled aircraft had become untethered from the family's yard and for two hours, authorities chased it as it wobbled above Colorado. When it landed in a field, empty, the Heene family -- who had twice appeared on the ABC reality show "Wife Swap" prior to the balloon incident -- insisted their older son had said Falcon climbed into the balloon before it took off. As it turned out, Falcon had been hiding in a cardboard box in the attic the entire time. In January 2011, the Heene children started a heavy metal band they call HEENE BOYZ, which includes Falcon as lead vocalist and bass player, Bradford, the oldest, on lead guitar, and Ryo, the middle son, on the drums.
Charles Tasnadi / AP file
Janet Cooke and 'Jimmy's World': In September 1980, Janet Cooke wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning story for the front page of The Washington Post about an eight-year-old boy with a heroin addiction, whose life was the product of rape. Just 26 herself, Cooke faded out of public view after Washington, D.C., police, desperate to help Jimmy out of his life of addiction, couldn't find him, and it was discovered that she had made up the entire tale. The Post returned her Pulitzer in 1981. Her boyfriend revealed years later that she was working for minimum wage at a department store.
Reuters
Milli Vanilli's Grammy: Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan of the German pop band Milli Vanilli took the stage in Los Angeles in 1990 to accept a Grammy award for best new artist, performing their big hit, "Girl You Know It's True," which hit number one on the U.S. charts. Sadly, the glitz and glamour of the Grammy night wore off quickly when it was discovered the two had not only lip-synched their Grammy performance, but the song's lead vocals belonged to other singers. To date, Milli Vanilli is the only group to ever have a Grammy revoked. Pilatus died of a suspected accidental drug overdose in 1998; Morvan told USA TODAY in 2010 he wants his Grammy back, but "there's no bitterness. It made me a better man."
James Frey: In January 2006, author James Frey got a literary slap in the face from one of the most influential book critics of all: Oprah Winfrey. "I feel duped," she told him on her talk show after accusing him of lying in his so-called memoir, "A Million Little Pieces," which chronicled his struggles with recovering from addiction. "But more importantly, I feel that you betrayed millions of readers." Frey's fall from book club pick to accusations of fabrication began after a thorough investigation from The Smoking Gun website found the author had "wholly fabricated or wildly embellished details of his purported criminal career, jail terms, and status as an outlaw 'wanted in three states.'" Despite the revelations, the book continued to fly off the shelves, but Doubleday, the publisher, added a note to future editions of "A Million Little Pieces" explaining some events in the text had been embellished. Since then, Oprah has publicly apologized to Frey for her harsh words, and he has gone on to publish a couple of other books -- but didn't classify those as memoirs.
Hulton Archive / Getty Images file
'War of the Worlds' radio broadcast: On Halloween eve in 1938, Americans who tuned into Orson Welles on CBS Radio received some astonishing news: A meteorite had crashed into New Jersey, and New York had been invaded by Martians. What the broadcast failed to convey to the stunned listeners who may have missed the introduction to the show was that they were listening to an adaptation of the science fiction novel "The War of the Worlds," written 40 years earlier by H.G. Wells. "Good heavens -- something's wiggling out of the shadow," one of the newscasters on the show, describing the meteorite in New Jersey read to terrified listeners, some of whom took to their basements to hide. "It glistens like wet leather. But that face -- it ... it is indescribable." Welles later expressed regret for causing such a panic.
CBS News via AP file
Stephen Glass: In the spring of 1998, journalist Stephen Glass was regularly publishing stories for Harper's Magazine, Rolling Stone, and Slate, and was an associate editor at The New Republic. But one story -- "Hack Heaven," about a 15-year-old hacker -- struck some as being too good to be true. As it turned out, all of it was: Neither the young hacker nor the software company he was allegedly blackmailing existed. As editors delved into more of Glass's stories, fabrications were found in a large portion of them. Since then, Glass has written a novel, "The Fabulist," and last summer, sought a California law license.
AFP - Getty Images file
The Great Moon Hoax: In August 1835, The New York Sun published a series of stories on its front page about wild advances in astronomy, including a new telescope made by Sir John Herschel that "discovered new planets beyond our solar system," "solved or corrected nearly every leading problem of mathematical astronomy," and discovered life on the moon. There were blue unicorns and winged humans on the moon, according to what was seen in this telescope, the story alleged. Astronomer Sir John Herschel was not consulted before the story was written quoting him. After numerous other newspapers responded to the stories expressing skepticism, one exposed it as a hoax by the end of the month.
Jayson Blair: Plagiarize at one of the most venerable newspapers in the world, and you'll make the front page – as the subject of an article. This is a lesson Jayson Blair learned in the spring of 2003, when he, as a young reporter at The New York Times, stole writing from other reporters, made up quotes, invented details out of thin air, and created an "embarrassment of plagiarism and fiction," according to The New York Times' own investigation. As the war in Iraq ramped up, so did his lies, with claims of reporting from the Texas home of a missing soldier or another soldier's funeral in Ohio, when in reality, he never traveled to either. A reporter he had interned with in the past accused him of plagiarizing parts of her story, published in the San Antonio Express News, word for word, in April of 2003; the following month, The Times ran a 14,000 word article detailing Blair's deceptions, which concluded he had faked all or part of 36 stories in the six months of his employment with them. He later wrote a book, "Burning Down My Master's House: My Life at the New York Times."
Mark Elias / AP file
Tawana Brawley: In 1987, at 15, Brawley was reportedly discovered in a garbage bag in Wappingers Falls, N.Y., her body smeared with feces and "KKK" and the n-word scrawled on her torso. In the hospital, she said that she had been kidnapped by white men and raped over a four-day period. Her terrible story propelled her into the national spotlight, with Rev. Al Sharpton and others supporting her as several men were implicated in the act. However, in late 1988, a grand jury investigation found "no medical or forensic evidence that a sexual assault was committed on Tawana Brawley," placing the entire account in question. One of the people Brawley had accused as an assailant was a New York prosecutor, who later successfully sued Brawley for defamation.
Lance Armstrong: He beat cancer, but he didn't beat allegations of doping. The Tour de France champion and Livestrong charity founder for years fought accusations that he took steroids to enhance his cycling performance. Along the way he built up a fortune estimated at more than $100 million. But on Thursday, Jan. 13, in an interview with Oprah Winfrey recorded earlier this week, he will finally admit that he did indeed dope, NBC News confirmed. It could spell the beginning of years of lawsuits that could cost him tens of millions of dollars.
Toshifumi Kitamura / AFP - Getty Images file
Roswell aliens: In July 1947, an aircraft fell from the sky, crashing on a ranch in Roswell, N.M. Whether it was a flying saucer from another world, a weather balloon, or something else entirely has left skeptics and believers debating for years -- but many out-of-this-world believers insist the government, which has a heavy military presence in Roswell, covered up the discovery of alien bodies in the aircraft. One intelligence officer and eyewitness to the crash, Maj. Jesse Marcel, fueled the speculation by saying years later that what was found on the ranch was "not of this Earth"; the Air Force issued two reports in the 1970s concluding the material was from Project Mogul, a secret program of atmospheric balloons used to detect nuclear tests from the Soviets.
Farmers Museum via AP file
The Cardiff Giant: In October 1869, a 10-foot-tall, petrified man was supposedly found by workers on a man's farm in Cardiff, N.Y. Some people thought he was a statue; others thought he was from biblical times. Crowds from all over flocked to see the stone giant, who, in actuality, was created by a man named George Hull. Hull decided to bury the giant in the ground after he got into an argument with a Methodist reverend about whether to take the Bible literally. Hull made the giant to show how blindly religious people will believe what they hear regarding their faith. Ultimately, the Cardiff Giant was an investment for Hull: He paid about $2,600 to make it, but a group of businessmen later paid him $37,500 to permanently display it in Cooperstown, N.Y..
What are your favorite tall tales and hoaxes? Tell us in the comments below.
Related:
- 9 baffling questions in the Manti Te'o girlfriend hoax
- Manti Te'o mystery: How do you fall in love with someone you've never met?
Leave a Comment:
Girl you know its true ! Lol
Damn. Earworm.
Grr.. Now I have to explain why I am singing that dang song!
Funny tho how now days all artists lip sync live and use auto tune and they still get grammys. I guess someone had to be first.
The difference is it is still their voice being auto-tuned and lip synced to. Milli Vanilli actually hired other singers for the studio sessions.
How can you have a list of greatest hoax's and not include Barack.
LOL. Sharpton looks like That Girl in that pic.
The biggest hoax lately, that many Americans swear is true, is that,"He's killing his own people"' and "They just want Democracy."
Barach Obama pretending to be an American!!
I've tried to figure out why Manti would have a phone and internet relationship with someone for three years and never meet but continue the relationship and I think I have it. Regardless of whether he was in on the hoax form the start the fact is he's a star football player on one of the most visible and famous college football teams in the nation. He could have had any number of women throughout his years at Notre Dame. Having been his age I'm pretty sure I would have blown off the broad after she stood me up on the first meeting let alone three years of the crap. The answer is that Manti is gay. Regardless of being in on the hoax the situation is perfect for an individual that wants to eventually have a career in the NFL but doesn't want his homosexuality to be a detriment to that dream. I'm sure he had girls approach him all the time. He could easily deflect their advances by claiming he was in a relationship. The sad thing is he probably did his NFL prospects more harm then good by using very poor judgment and, from all indications, taking the easy way out. As more of this story is revealed I wouldn't be surprised if he fell to the fourth round. Since Al Davis is no longer of this world he probably won't go to the Raiders. Look to Kansas City of Seattle to pick him up. Andy Reid or Pete Carroll don't appear to me to be individuals that value character all that much.
Al Sharpton & Twana Brawley and John Edwards & Bill Clinton are the biggest hoaxes in America. Who gives a crap about Millie Vanilli. Good grief. John Edwards could have gotten elected as our president. Thank God he didn't. Bill Clinton lied about getting his ding dock sucked in the Oval Office (Office of We The People). Of course, the prez we have now is sure screwing America, our jobs, our economy, our healthcare, our taxes, our Constitutions, our freedoms & liberties. This guy should have been voted out. WTBlank is wrong with our citizens to vote in a man who has helped 25million people lose their jobs, now half our nation is on food stamps, Unemployment for blacks is 15%, 75% of black babies born out of wedlock, (he never mentions that), black high school drop out rate at an all time high (he never mentions that either but they still LOVE him - WHY?) stores are closing and he is taking our guns to protect ourselves from a government that is totally out of control. God help us save ourselves from the media-driven news and focus on what is being done to us daily by this admin & the lame stream media.
All of the crap you are spewing is certainly a hoax. How about dubya got handed a surplus and 8 years later spent trillions without paying for it on a war based on lies. On top of that, he cut taxes to the rich during the same war (a first in our history as a matter of fact). He lost 4 million jobs in his last 10 month alone and handed a budget deficit of 1.4 trillion to President Obama. Those are facts.
Wow, you'er still bitter. How long did your most recent husband last mz loo?
he isnt taking away our guns...fyi. that will never happen.
and our country has been falling for a long time. we are in the most debt. it wouldnt have mattered who became president, we would still be where were at today. that's what most people like you don't understand.
if you want to know why our generation is so f*cked, turn on the tv. and you'll see why.
@lynda loo
I hope that venting you did made you feel better. Just one tiny little thing. All your ranting has nothing to do with hoaxes (the subject of the article you are commenting on). It has to do with perhaps, cover ups, but not hoaxes.
And Ronnie Rayguns? Please.
Just kills me! EVERYTHING has to be turned into politics. Lynda Loopy - YOU get the credit for starting it on this thread.
Little drunken bush: "We know there are WMD in Iraq; we even know where they are."
Sharpshooter Cheney: "Ronald Reagan proved deficits don't matter."
lyndy loo
where on Earth did you get those stats?
25 million people lose their jobs, now half our nation is on food stamps, Unemployment for blacks is 15%, 75% of black babies born out of wedlock, black high school drop out rate at an all time high...
- my guess here is you ARE NOT black. I need to see where you got these stats tho. I am betting you made them up - so is that a hoax? Or are you?
lynda you had me up until political blah blah blah...
But Al Sharpton is a hoax and a fake...And has never once apologized for leading the witch hunt even after he knew it was fake....
@Carl Caroli: "And Ronnie Rayguns? Please."
Is this in reference to Ronald Reagan (aka "Uncle Ronnie")? And no, I'm not a "fan"; IMO, he should have stuck to the big screen or the boob tube & leave politics to the true idiots. I think Arnold should have done the same (& definitely not a fan of his; rumor--something that hoaxes are based on--has it that Arnie's father was working with the Nazis during WWII, but I dislike him for other reasons).
In response to Lynda Loo you didn't find it fit to mention the cause of our depression George Bush who caused the war in Iraq helped send our jobs over seasand continued to pilfer away our reserve in Social Security. George Bush who Bullied his way back in office for a second term when nobody wanted him in there in the first place, caused a situation where he could just distract the American people and slide back into office.
You are talking about Tawanna Brawley and Al Sharpton, what about Donald Trump and Rudy Guliani who had so much to say about the Central Park 5 (five) calling them animals that needed to be put down like the rabid animals that they are. Neither has come out since the truth has come out to apologize to either of the five for not raping their poor defenseless little white girl. For those of you who weren't around for that time Donald Trump ran a full page ad in the newspapers stating what should be done to those animals and how they shouldn't be alowwed to walk these streets again for the rest of their natural born lives.
sam adams
All of the crap you are spewing is certainly a hoax. How about dubya got handed a surplus and 8 years later spent trillions without paying for it on a war based on lies. On top of that, he cut taxes to the rich during the same war (a first in our history as a matter of fact). He lost 4 million jobs in his last 10 month alone and handed a budget deficit of 1.4 trillion to President Obama. Those are facts.
Good job...best post of the year so far.....Dubya should be in prison with Cheney and Rumsfeld.
Yes Baron....All is ok with Sharpton and Brawley because someone else did something too....
Al Gore, global warming, Obama.................... all a hoax
Gore may be a hoax, but if you still have questions on global warming, well you're either over 80 years old or didn't have much schooling in science.
Lot's of time in school...... heard it all int he '70s.... then it was the next ice age...... no doubt the earth heats and cools...... but so does MARS....... don't think that little rover is causing it.... maybe ti could be that huge thing in the sky that hurls crap at the earth everyday?
Man is NOT the cause..... same way MAN does not cause volcanoes or earthquakes......
You do realize that CLIMATE is just WEATHER over a long period of time?
Steve, you are going to eventually realise you are wrong, you might want to avoid adding to your own embarrassment in the meantime.
I like the one where hussein obama said he would cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term!
That's what you get for being gullible for believing in hussein obama, who ever that is.
Transparency, we saw through that did we.
Obama' team made the decision to book the cost of war, making the deficit jump immediately when he entered office, where Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld called their wars emergency expenditures, keeping the actual deficit artifically low. low, low. I don't understand why this is never acknowledged.
My sex life.
This comment wins. Everyone else go home.
Don't know how to take this one. He could be playing ya! Hoax or Joke? Than again could be a GOD!
@Alex-906952:
Good one! I agree with the idea that everybody who wants to air political crap can just go--this is merely a form of an entertaining history lesson, not a political forum.
For fun, check out JibJab! They make fun of all of the political BS (the election between George Bush & John Kerry is quite funny: "You waffle like a house of pancakes!") or Wal-Mart (aka "Big Box Mart") & things that occur over previous years (I don't know what they wrote about 2012, but I think 2010 was a good one, or was it 2009?). If anybody wants to find out about what is real & what isn't (i.e. those crappy emails that people seem to enjoy forwarding in a chain-mail fashion), go to www.snopes.com or www.truthorfiction.com. I advise this of everybody who sends such junk to me & remind them to do the research before mailing out such bunk!
How about "reality shows?" I.e., "Jon & Kate plus 8," "Here Comes Honey Boo-Boo" (gag!) & other forms of "entertainment," which should really be labeled as hoaxes (the "hoax" is the fact that these things could be categorized as entertainment!).
Wonder what the next piece of "news" will be a hoax?
Hence the origin of the phrase "pulling a practical joke".
The Kardashians! Honestly, I saw Kim and Kourtney on Dave Letterman the other night and I swear there is not one working, intelligent brain between them.
I wouldn't really call "War of the Worlds" a hoax -- Welles and the actors weren't trying to fool anyone, they were presenting an entertainment. It wasn't their fault that people coming to the show late believed it was real.
What about the most-famous (and thoroughly faked) photo of the Loch Ness Monster? The Cottingley Fairies? Piltdown Man? Crop circles? The Fiji mermaid? People will fall for anything -- sadly, PT Barnum was right.
Two I can think of...
1-That Pope John Paul I died of natural causes
2-Eight years of the Bush Administration
Oh snap, you beat me to it. We got eight years of rule by this unqualified goof because he was the former President's son and conservatives were pi$$ed about Bill Clinton. GW's entire career was riding on his dad's coattails and he took it about as far as you can go.
Question here: Do you think Dubya's "reign of terror" killed any chance of Jeb Bush making it into the Oval Office? Think about it: Jeb was guv of Florida (remember the term "Hanging chads" & the fact that Florida caused such an issue when it came to who was winning that it took weeks to figure it out), but the media gave us all the impression that Florida was pretty solid & stable economically, etc., thus making Jeb sound like a 'solid investment' for future elections. Now, Jeb's out of sight, whereas before it seemed that he was all over TV & the newspapers!
2 Bush presidents screwed over the country. Should we consider the third one "a charm" or run screaming into Canada?
Great article. Reminds me of that guy on "America's Got Talent" who claimed to be a war hero. Brought tears to everyone's eyes. Turns out the story's not true.
The joke is America's Got Talent, that's why we needed Britain to show US how to Rock N Roll, then Rock! We showed them the Blues they showed us what to do with it.
bubba, technically we didn't show them. They mined for it. Those records were scarce as seeing a real Fender guitar. They traded/borrowed them at art school. They being Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, John Mayall, Brian Jones, etc, etc...... I loved when the Beatles first came to America, the press asked them what they wanted to see. They said "Muddy Waters". The press asked "Where's that"? They responded "You don't even know who your famous people are, do you".
Actually some of the blues musicians were going over there and playing in the clubs, but ya getting copies of the records was the hardest thing to do. They wanted to bring the blues back and they thought England was the place.
Hey bubba, I've got about 4 of those blues shows they did in the early sixties on DVD. Had a stage dressed up as a train station. Sister Rosetta Tharp, John Lee Hooker, Willie Dixion(I'm a blues guitarist btw). Robert Plant said he went to one of those shows as a kid. I likes the story where Muddy Waters went over with his piano player, Otis Spann and brought his Fender telecaster...and blew the doors off the place and sent the reviewers in a tizzy. He returned a couple of years later(the Stones and Yardbirds were happening by then)with his acoustic and they all asked him where was his electric? Muddy said he didn't try to figure them out anymore. Many retired over there because of the way they were still treated here in the US. Treated like kings over there. (Listening to Little Walter as I write this) ;-)
My wife was the Lucky one, I saw Zeppelin in 77, in Chicago, Page got sick, but my wife use to go to the Kinetic Play ground, she saw the original Stones, the Who do Tommy before it was an album, and Pete hand her part of a guitar, Cream, The Yardbirds ran up on stage and grabbed Jeff Beck, then had a chance to see The New Yard Birds, she saw Eric in every format except solo, The original Fleetwood Mac, Savoy Brown, She even had Chicago sing songs over a telephone to her because her brother knows someone. Now she listens to soft stuff along with Clapton and Steve Ray. She even saw the Beatles Live paid $3.75 for the tickets. She was there, me well 70's were a good time. My second cousin plays the blues Jake La Botz.
Big Cream fan and am finishing Pete's book "Who Am I". Big Neil Youg "electric" fan. Have the Cream bootleg two Disc Live set in '67 But I can't remember the space, some "ballroom" is in the title. I have a ton of Hendrix bootlegs plus boot DVD's; Albert Hall gig, a Rainbow Bridge boot DVD with 21 songs on it(Video quality all over the place)but music is intact. Love Peter Green with Mayall(check out a live "The Stumble" on youtube. About 7+minutes of monster guitar). Big Mike Bloomfield fan, Live Adventures of Mike and Al Kooper" has some great slow blues of Mikes. I have that sorta boot "Yardbirds Live at Anderson Theater" w/Page. Do you have the new Zep DVD Celebration Day? Guys can still kick ass. Saw JPJones band open for King Crimson about 10ish years ago. Never realized what a great bassist he is. Pleasure meeting you bubba. PS;will also buy anything with Howard Duane Allman on it. Just got a live "A&R Studios" that's them in August of 1971.
Nice meeting you Robert, Big Zep fan, Yea I got the new Live also have many boots, I have Zep doin Train, Money, When The Levee Breaks, Wonton, I got like an 8 hour concert live, I put together on my iPod amazing what you can do with one little machine. I've got a version of Nobody's Fault that is from 77 that even kicks I bleed it right into How the west was won's verson of Imigrant with no break so when Robert hit that Fault it just starts BANG then right into Imigrant then bleeds into a 77 version on Kashmir.
How about Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. dubya started a war that, unfortunately, cost the taxpayers of the US 10 BILLION/month for years.
And now the Tea Partiers are angry because President Obama can't balance the budget due to the interest payments on Bush's follies. Dumb people.
hey morons...bush is gone.....in case yo didn't know...
And human lives......the deaths are still there.
Yet the weapons went else were??
Hope and Change. That's turned out to be as big as WMD's in Iraq.
Hope and Change didn't kill over 6000 of our American troops.
Ted Bundy's gone too, but those girls are still dead.
In case you didn't know.
Barack Hussein Obama Jr./Bari Shabazz/Barry Soetoro
All one and the same
An Indonesian citizen becoming an American President.
Six days, six weeks, no way will it be six months...and that was what, only a decade ago.
Take all those other hoaxes listed here and they come nowhere near the cost to the American public financially or in loss of life or in how the rest of the civilized world views us.
I don't think Roswell Aliens or the War of the Worlds broadcasts qualify as hoaxes since there's no evidence or indication that either were any kind of deliberately made up story to convince people there were aliens anywhere. Just because they're widely misunderstood wouldn't mean they were hoaxes meant to mislead people.
I have to agree on War of the Worlds not belonging on this list. Welles made it clear at the start nothing about the broadcast was real. It's not his fault Americans are stupid.
Global Warming is a fact, only the Oil Industry considers it a hoax.
Same with the "Paul is dead". The fans read so many things into the "evidence", that some people still believe it today. I'm not kidding. Some guy want's Paul to submit DNA to prove he's Paul. This was on a thread in 2010 about Jimi Hendrix. You could almost hear him stamping and seething thru the monitor that the current "Paul" was a fake, an imposter. LOL For you younger kids, he was in a band called the Beatles. Played bass and sang....still does.
Underpaid...the problem was people came into the broadcast late and didn't hear it was a radio show. In that era, who in the sticks knew anything about space. When the Apollo astronauts came back to Earth they were quarantined to keep us safe from "space germs" and that was the sixties.
It didn't matter if you joined the War of the Worlds broadcast late - there were scheduled breaks throughout the program where it was identified as a Mercury Theater Production. Anyone who thought it might be real simply wasn't paying attention. The myths about panic in the streets resulting from the broadcast are simply that: myths, and the broadcast itself certainly shouldn't be called a hoax.
The Bible
The Kensington Runestone
The American Political system
Gotta love that someone else thought of the Kensington Runestone.
George Hull was trolling religious nuts in the 19th century.
Trust me.
The check is in the mail.
"I did not have sex with that woman..., Monica Lewinski...," as the finger wags at the camera...
He didn't but his cigar did. It just had an after taste.
If you recall... she didn't complain about it at all. In fact, Monica was bragging about it.
It was that Troll Linda Tripp that was responsible for telling all of America. The president got nob job. Tripp got a nose job. B!tch is STILL fugly.
Golden tablets from Moroni in a magic hat.
LOL Middle! And that's why it was so easy to fool Manti Te'o! Believe that and you'll believe anything.
Why is Armstrong a hoax? Didn't he win all those tour de france on a level playing field as everyone was taking PEDs. They couldn't give away the yellow shirts all those years Lance won, because the top finishers were doing PEDs too. Didn't he really have cancer? Yeah he was a cheat and a lyer, but hoax? someone's got it out for Armstrong.
Whoever wrote the article, doesn't know the meaning of a "hoax". What Armstong did doesn't qualify as one.
The two-party system is the greatest hoax in US history.
They left out the biggest of all hoaxes.... religion.
How about the Duke lacross team "rape".
The biggest hoax out there is science. A few hundred years ago, we woulda called it witchcraft. And math was created by ghosts.
All evil, made up things. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to church.
Piltdown Man.
Ashley Todd.
Pam Anderson
They said hoax not fake.
Piltdown, would be a good one, although it wasn't American.
Wouldn't the greatest hoax's actually have worked, like, you know, WMDs?
How about in the 90s when Dateline NBC blew up (using an incendiary device) a GM pickup truck and proclaimed to the world that a GM factory defect caused the truck to explode upon impact! People should never forget this hoax and deception that helped move GM toward financial ruin years later.
Wish I'd seen the blowup of a GM truck. Anything like the blowing up of the dead whale on the coast of WA? With the whale, there were giant chunks of whale all over the place & people were actually dumb enough to go spread blankets & have picnics (felt sorry for a male reporter whose car was totalled by the flying chucks of blubber). Were there parts of the truck falling on the news crew? Imagine screws, bolts, etc. flying everywhere!
Sorry but for my money the greatest hoax in U.S. history is the Republican Party.
You are deluded if you think one party is better than the other. Both have their problems and strengths.
The only strength common to both parties is screwing the American people and convincing them how lucky they are for it...
the greatest hoax in american history is the ass obama........hands down winner!!!!!!!!
not a favorite by any means, but the biggest hoax of my lifetime is either so called, man-made global warming OR Hope and Change....of which we have neither.
Global Warming is not a hoax, and Hope and Change is a vague campaign slogan that wouldn't qualify.