'Gay Girl,' a modern day 'Jimmy's World'

Once upon a time, noting a rise in niche bloggers who had carved out a unique identity and legions of fans online, I toyed with the idea of creating a fictional blog that sounded real.

Actually I did less than toy with the idea -- I thought about it for about 10 seconds. Then I shoved it to the back of my mind under, "Stuff I'll never have time for." And there it stayed.

Today I read about the "Gay Girl in Damascus" hoax. The whole story is fascinating, yet one that I have little time for on Monday morning. But what was most interesting is how, before blogger Tom MacMcaster revealed himself -- and even after doubts had been case that his creation, Amina Abdullah (or "Abdallah"), wasn't real, respected news media organizations accepted Tom's blog as truth.

Reported CBS News on June 8:

"Author of the internationally acclaimed blog "A Gay Girl in Damascus", Amina Abdullah, has been abducted and possibly jailed by what family members believe to be security forces of the Syrian government or agents of the Baath Party militia.

Abdullah has received attention worldwide for her bravery and resolve in the face of death..."

That was the lede. In fairness, a hint that there was some trouble with the veracity of Amina's story was in the story, but not until the very end.

No such hint in this Time Magazine piece written before "Amina's" reported "abduction":

"Inspiring the Syrian protest movement is an honest and reflective voice of the revolution: a half-American citizen journalist who, in illustrating her country's plight, risks death herself..."

Nor in this Al Jazeera piece:

"A female blogger has been abducted by armed men in the Syrian capital, Damascus, relatives and activists say..."

No, just the blog said. Whatever happened to making a few calls to check out something you found online?

Again, not a lot of time for such stuff this morning. But this story either proves that certain highly regarded news outlets are lazier than I ever expected, or that good writing can fool anybody. Probably both are true.

PS, I'd link the quotes above but I have a feeling they'll be dead by noon. Here they are anyway:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504943_162-20070103-10391715.html

http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/05/10/a-gay-girl-in-damascus-lesbian-blogger-becomes-syrian-hero/#ixzz1PAO7Pk2c

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/06/2011671229558865.html