Explanation of this morning’s news
If you came here during the morning, you probably saw a news story about Radiohead playing a secret gig last night in Oxford. It was false. I knew it was false when I put it up.
A group of people in the Radiohead community organized an attempt to fool the NME in publishing a false story about Radiohead. If you paid attention to the NME’s “journalism” skills, you’ll notice that their news is very similar the news that many Radiohead fan sites have. The NME scours the fan sites to get news so they can sell their magazine. Beryl’s Follow Me Around site is a good example of this. This was especially highlighted when Steven Wells, a journalist for the NME, wrote a column about Radiohead and their “pretentious little pricks” of fans.
The plan was to throw up a story that was false but believable on a few Radiohead fans sites, including green plastic, hoping that someone like the NME would pick it up. It could have happened but I decided to take it down before it could spread any further.
The plan failed in that not enough consideration was given to the consequences that people close to the band, like w.a.s.t.e., would have to deal with because of our foolishness.
I hope you haven’t been too disappointed with our attempt. We didn’t want to fool the fans, just the NME. Bad idea.
-jonathan
