Posted on 01/10/2006 10:49:58 AM PST by Clint N. Suhks
It sounded like a demented Disney story: A mouse enraged at being set afire takes its revenge by running into his assailant's house and burning it to the ground.
It was so good a story that the Clovis News-Journal printed it; The Associated Press picked it up; the Albuquerque Journal and every other news outlet in creation ran the AP story; and by yesterday noon, the story had just about circled the globe, even earning a chuckle and extended discussion on the Rush Limbaugh radio show.
It remains ABQjournal.com's top e-mailed story and the fourth most-read story on our Web site.
But now KOAT-TV is saying it ain't necessarily so.
The station talked to Luciano (Chano) Mares, the 81-year-old Fort Sumner resident whose home burned down on Saturday, sparking the rumor that spread like wildfire.
According to the original story, Mares had thrown a mouse into a burning pile of leaves outside his house, but the mouse ran back to just beneath a window in Mares' house, causing flames to spread up and inside till the home was a total loss.
Only trouble is, Mares told KOAT-TV, the mouse had been trapped and killed before it was thrown on the burning leaves.
The house burned down because flames from the brush fire were probably driven by high winds, Mares told the TV station.
(Excerpt) Read more at abqjournal.com ...
Fake but accurate.
Brought to by the Office of the Department of Redundancy.
Yes it did it carried a tiny little torch and pitchfork.
According to Mary Mapes, the burden of proof to get the facts verified are not on the media's shoulders.
Cancel the JD alert (damn).
Its the seriousness of the charges that really matter.
You knew when you read this story that it was going to ultimately be retracted.
Nicely done DC.
Precisely. It's the MSM's gold standard.
How about this:
The story is true, but PETA threatened to file a lawsuit against the lady for animal cruelty so she changed her story? That would be pretty sharp. She's 81 -- she wasn't born yesterday!
"You knew when you read this story that it was going to ultimately be retracted."
You mean Rush got snookered ?
The disgronificator in his truth detector went on the fritz again ?
( He spent at least a half-hour on this yesterday )
I thought Rush wasn't going to be in Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week! I haven't been listening. Darn!!!
Uh - that was last month ....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.