Girl's story of dad was a hoax, paper says

[Gogi]

www.stltoday.com front page

[benburch]

1. Sad.

What a sick thing to do. :(

[back2basics909]

2. Did yo notice...

.. that the start of it was about how the fake girl was upset at anti-war protesters and how she was upset as her dad was going to Iraq?

Is this guy a freeper?

[henslee]

3. Pretty freaky. When you check out this lilnk don't miss the dead

or alive celebrity quiz. What a paper.

[Gogi]

5. Hey, I got seven out of ten!

eom

[TomInTib]

6. I got 9

guessed a lot

[Gogi]

4. The woman who conducted this hoax is one sick puppy.

I've heard of this kind of thing happening before but not for two years. I don't believe Brenner had anything to do with it other than being taken in, why should I believe her?:thumbsdown:

[11cents]

7. Sort of a cousin of the common hoax...

...where someone claims to be dying of cancer or whatever, and reaps in the attention and sympathy. The motive in those cases seems to be more a matter of psychological dysfunction than of greed. Same thing here?

[libertypirate]

9. You should read the original article.... link

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0508260251aug26,1,6836162.story

[libertypirate]

8. Please read this version from the Chicago Trib, more detail

It is really sad watching this story get chewed to crap...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0508260251aug26,1,6836162.story

[DELUSIONAL]

10. Well there are men claiming to be Vietnam Vets

a few years back one such hoax was exposed. This guy had concocted an elaborate story -- and he was attacking real Vets.

His story unraveled when someone with real "top secret" clearance questioned the phony Vet's claim that no one could find a record of him even being in the military because his duty was "secret".

With a bit of digging we discovered that this macho Vet/Indian would have been too young to have gone on the missions he claimed -- he was 18 when the Vietnam war ended. Also if he were on missions so secret that no military record existed -- then he probably wouldn't have told anyone that he was former military. And he didn't grow up on the Rez -- and he was probably Italian and not a Rez Indian as he claimed.

After reading the story of the phony military brat -- I'd say that the reporters never did their home work. The kid would have known her father's unit -- and other details. I believe that real military brats would have spotted a phony right away. DU has several military brats -- from all branches of the service and I doubt that we would have been fooled. Of course this story had a twist since it was the ADULT who was faking being a child of a soldier -- and not the child herself.

Was the reporter mentioned at the end of the story also involved? Sort of like a Judith Miller -- the bushie administration couldn't pull off their invasion of Iraq without the help of frauds, fakes and phony reporters.

Just as the real Vietnam Vets quickly exposed the fake Vet years ago.