To promote his Fat Squad, Skaggs simply sent a press release to wire services, which then sent the story to newsrooms across the country. "The Washington Post and The Philadelphia Enquirer both fell for this," Skaggs said. "Another journalist wanting to do their own personal spin on it will call you up, verify that they spoke to you, and then repackage, re-can and put out the same story in essence," he said.
And what newspapers print, television regularly copies. Skaggs, posing as Joe Bones, appeared on ABC's Good Morning America, promoting his Fat Squad. The show's former co-host David Hartman introduced the story by announcing that "six Fat Squad commandos are here now, this morning, live, to maintain tight security around our Good Morning America refrigerator." Hartman displayed a bit of skepticism, asking "Bones" if the Fat Squad was legitimate, but that was the extent of the challenge.
There is, of course, a big difference between Joey Skaggs, a self-styled "satirist" who's looking to fool the media, and Greg Packer, an apparently honest schlub who just wants to see his name in print, but in the end they've been able to do what they do for the same reason: not enough people have paid enough attention to recognize them when they've popped up. I suspect it will be harder for Packer to get in the paper now that he's been outed, but I can just about guarantee we haven't seen the last of him.