Brian Wilson Facebook Death Hoax

[joshferrell]

I didn't actually see any of this on facebook but it's trending on Yahoo so I figured I would post it here..

http://en.mediamass.net/people/brian-wilson/deathhoax.html

[ontor pertawst]

My favorite weirdass spammy fakey bit on that site is:

http://en.mediamass.net/people/al-jardine/break-up.html

A fan spotted Al Jardine walking alone, probably coming back from picking up his mail at the end of his several mile long driveway, on the afternoon of November 18, 2014. Was he all alone? “Definitely yes,” says the fan, adding that “He was wearing a large sweater and looked really cute!”

Is Al back on the market?

A rep for Al Jardine was not immediately available for comment.

Truth or rumor, when news that the singer was splitting hit the internet Wednesday (November 19), Twitter immediately exploded with pithy commentary. It seems everyone had an opinion on the matter:

    “Has anyone Al’s phone number?”
    — Michelle Whedon (@mimiwhedon) November 19, 2014

    “So very sad… Those 2 were so great as a couple. So cute together.”
    — Crystal (@crystal_clear) November 19, 2014

Based on the facts (Jardine spotted alone with a cute sweater), is there trouble in paradise or is it much ado about nothing?


(Cute sweater, you may wonder? You may have missed that time Al got voted the sexiest singer alive...)


For the second year in a row 2013 and 2014

The magazine has released its annual list of the 100 men who made history hotter, and the honors go to exactly who you thought they would (if you keep up with celebrity news): Al Jardine, Beach Boys guitarist. For the second year in a row, our gorgeous hottie beat out some other equally hot men for the number one spot! And we can't say we disagree!

Twitter Frenzy

Within minutes of Al Jardine being announced as this year’s winner, it had become the top trending topic on Twitter:

    “He is unquestionably handsome, he’s been smartly building his career on more than his looks,” wrote one fan.

    “#Al Jardine being named THE Sexiest Man Alive makes his girlfriend the luckiest Woman Alive?” joked another one.

The major upside of the award is that the American singer and guitarist will be getting plenty of press for the next few weeks. So what do you say? Do you think Al Jardine is the Sexiest Singer Alive? And if not, who gets your vote?

--

Apparently David Marks has jumped on the timely "gangnam style" craze. Golly.

[joshferrell]

lol..poor Al...

[Rocky Raccoon]

Mediamass is a website that generates fake news stories about any celebrity, it's basically designed to confuse people who come across it through search engines.

[Andrew G. Doe]

I didn't actually see any of this on facebook...

Know why ? 'Cause it's not there. Fact that that's a spoof site kinda passed you by, didn't it ?

[ontor pertawst]

This is going to crush Alan when he realizes that sweater wasn't actually cute.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

I saw it on yahoo and freaked out.

[joshferrell]

I didn't actually see any of this on facebook...

Know why ? 'Cause it's not there. Fact that that's a spoof site kinda passed you by, didn't it ?

that's true, lol... but it was on yahoo trending in the top news,,

[joshferrell]

trending at #1 (although it's hard to see on this photo lol)

[Andrew G. Doe]

Barnum was right...

[Debbie Keil-Leavitt]

I saw it on yahoo and freaked out.

Sorry you saw it, Billy and I'm glad I didn't.  I'd have been looking to create a page "RIP Jerk who started rumor Brian is dead" right after I strangled him/her.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

I was at work downloading a work app and i saw it

[joshferrell]

Barnum was right...

yup I'm a sucker...lol.. but at least he's still alive so that's good news...

[sockittome]

Barnum was right...

yup I'm a sucker...lol.. but at least he's still alive so that's good news...

Would you like to buy a bridge that I own located in NYC?

[joshferrell]

Barnum was right...

yup I'm a sucker...lol.. but at least he's still alive so that's good news...

Would you like to buy a bridge that I own located in NYC?

lol...

[RangeRoverA1]

Fake death jokes are the most tasteless & worst. Full stop.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Absolutely no argument here. Tasteless and thoughtless.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

They also did this
http://en.mediamass.net/people/carl-wilson/alive.html

Ummm...yeah.

[The Shift]

It gets better; I wonder if Melinda knows she's in the family way?

http://en.mediamass.net/people/brian-wilson/pregnancy-rumors.html

[Andrew G. Doe]

Better still - does Melinda know she's not actually married to Brian ? Just his "long-term partner".

Inquiring minds need to know...

[Cabinessenceking]

not much mass in the brains of the editors or the viewership....to nobody's surprise

[37!ws]

Never saw the hoax; this is the first I'm seeing of it, thank God. Had a stupid week so far and I don't need to be hornswaggled.

[Shady]

trending at #1 (although it's hard to see on this photo lol)

Awful

Seriously glad I didn't see that

[guitarfool2002]

I'm going to be the buzzkill guy here and suggest ending this thread. This whole scenario is disgusting, and by continuing to talk about it, the satire/fake celebrity news site that plies this kind of garbage is getting what they want, which is attention and web visits.

Let me explain, and I encourage others who have read this thread to look further into it if they don't immediately see what's going on.

"MediaMass" as has been linked to above seems to be the so-called source of this crap. If you follow one of the links posted above to their site, you'll find numerous fake stories of various celebrity death reports, and they're so clueless and ham-fisted in what they do that they can't be bothered to write a new fake news bulletin for each celebrity. Look at other death notice parodies they have posted there, and notice the text is exactly the same with only the name and bio information cut-and-pasted into the text.

For the record, go through and also check the other fake stories about celebs and you'll see they just copy and paste the fake news details into whatever celebrity name they choose. It's not even good satire, in fact it's pretty damned lazy and not very funny to try satirizing the news media and not even bothering to write new copy for each of their fake stories.

I'm not against parody, or the kind of hip-ironic bent this fake news site is aiming for through commenting on the popular and entertainment media culture via these fake viral news bursts, but some things go too far. I think The Onion, for one, succeeds as it does as a parody news site because the parody is written with some level of skill and intelligence. And also, an expectation that the story or subject of the parody is known by enough readers ahead of time that the parody works as comedy, and most readers will know the difference going into the deal.

Reporting fake death news? That's not only unfunny, it's disturbing and in ways disgusting too. They should be called out for doing this stuff, no matter who the subject is, and their site lists numerous entertainers besides Brian in their fake death reports, and again they can't even be bothered to change the copy for each person being targeted.

I think their goal and their desired result is to have one of their phony stories "go viral", have it "trend" on various legit news sites, and they can sit back and have a smug laugh in their rented office space (or their bedroom/basement headquarters)  as people reading random news blasts start clicking away to find more info, and the ad revenues start piling up as fans start clicking away. It's a pretty shameful way to either make a buck, get a laugh, or make a B.S. social commentary on the nature of media culture in the digital age.

There are things that cross the line even in parody, and reporting death notices with fake references is neither funny, nor is it ever appropriate. This crew who is banking on this for either laughs or ad revenue via the web traffic they generate should be called out for what they are. No one should use reports of a death as fodder like this. Those that do should be held responsible, and should get the message through legal or public pushback means that it won't be tolerated. It's fine to parody any one of millions of aspects of a public figure's life, but a series of fake death announcements goes too far.

And in this case, having it able to be traced directly to the website source responsible for starting it? Absolutely, mind-numbingly stupid and foolish. See what happens next.

Off soapbox.

[bgas]

If it's that bad, why not simply lock the thread?  Last I heard you're a mod....