The Nazi war criminal hoax - An update

Via Jonathan Allen of Reuters we learn that none of the newspapers guilty of falling for the penpricks hoax -- with the exception of O Heraldo -- has owned up to being taken for a ride. Obviously, none has admitted that its-checking/gatekeeping is totally crap. Penpricks has also posted its own assessment, focussing, as is their right as the originators of the fraudulent release, on how individual newspapers basically made up additional details and cited non-existent sources to embellish the story.

What's even more astonishing is that DNA actually filed the story 24 hours after the hoax was revealed. And The Telegraph, which ought to know better, still insists it learned of the story from "sources in the Intelligence Bureau" and not from the totally bogus press release put out by penpricks, as if that makes their error of judgment any more excusable. Read their follow-up:

IB sources had yesterday confirmed that they had heard of such a joint operation but could not give enough details. The questions for which no answers were forthcoming were the name of the German intelligence officer who led the operation, the piano’s details and the name and exact location of the concentration camp in which Bach had allegedly overseen the genocide.

The IB officials today acknowledged that it was too short a time to get such details, but did say that the story that was covered in several dailies was similar to the inputs put out by the IB.

How pathetic!