The Girl Who Wasnt There: Mexican quake victim seems to be fake

[muriel_volestrangler]

Shortly after 8 a.m. on Wednesday, the words ‘Girl about to be rescued’ flash across the TV screen. Hundreds of soldiers, marines, police officers and volunteers, under the command of Admiral José Luis Vergara, work with picks, mallets and shovels to reach a girl thought to be trapped. A sniffer dog named Daniel has located a person. Topos (the human ‘moles’ made famous in the 1985 earthquake) crawl into the rubble and report that the girl moved her hand when they spoke to her. Smiles break out all around. A hose is inserted to deliver water and is seen to move.
...
18.06 Someone has spoken with the girl, now identified as Frida Sofía. She says two bodies are near her, either dead or alive. She is trapped under a granite-topped table. Betty reminds me of the 16 babies rescued from collapsed hospitals after the 1985 earthquake.
...
22.09 A pathway to Frida has been opened. She has apparently said there are five other girls, but there is no proof of this. A blue tin holding white flowers and an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe have been placed at the entrance. The rescue operation has been going on for 12 hours and 40 minutes. National attention has crystallised on the plight of a single child.
...
23.48 An extinguisher explodes. Part of the roof is collapsing. Two topos and an army captain say they’ve had verbal contact with a 12-year-old girl called Sofía.

https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2017/09/22/homero-aridjis/the-girl-who-wasnt-there/

And the next day, it was announced there never was such a 'Sofia'. Completely bizarre.

[Turbineguy]

1. Natural disaster version of

fog of war?

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. But for a whole day, people were claiming to have spoken to her

to have found out her name, and to have given her a hose for water. That's not 'fog'.

[global1]

2. I Was Watching This Coverage On MSNBC - It Was Compelling....

I was glued to the TV. I was rooting for the girl and the others hoping the the rescuers wouldn't collapse the marble table on them and kill them. I felt for the parents that were said to be isolated nearby. They gave the girl water. They gave the girl chocolates. They gave her a cell phone hoping to locate her by the GPS function. They brought in more support beams - both wooden and metal - to shore up the building. They raised clenched fists - not as a black power symbol - but to quiet to anxious crowd - so as to hear this troubled girl and the others that were trapped with her.

Then I learned it was all a sham.

What the hell happened?

Why were we being fed this story?