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Latest Online Ruse Shows Need for Caution

LA Times: Lonelygirl15’s revelation: It’s all just part of the show. After amateur sleuths uncovered apparent links between the Creative Artists Agency and the official lonelygirl15 MySpace page, a statement claiming to be from “The Creators” was posted on the lonelygirl15 website late Thursday. It read in part:

“Our intention from the outset has been to tell a story — A story that could only be told using the medium of video blogs and the distribution power of the Internet. A story that is interactive and constantly evolving with the audience.”

The entertainment industry is not known for its ethical behavior. This is just one more example.

It’s also another demonstration of the skepticism we must increasingly bring to the media we encounter. People like the ones behind this stunt make it hard to trust anything we find online, at least until we have some reason to believe its authenticity.

1 Comment on “Latest Online Ruse Shows Need for Caution”

  1. #1 Grouchy Blogger
    on Sep 12th, 2006 at 12:35 am

    lonelygirl15…

    Whatever the theory behind this project, the whole thing smacks of efforts in the past to use the viral nature of blogs to promote a commercial product or service. In almost every case these efforts have failed miserably, exposing their perpetrators t…