KCBS/Channel 2 news can't blame two thugs who mistakenly roughed up the wrong Jeffrey Lebowski on behalf of Jackie Treehorn for the case of mistaken movie identity the station put out to the world last week.
It can blame Examiner.com, however.
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First, to back up, Super Official News, a sort of The Onion wannabe, “reported” that The Big Lebowski 2: The Dude Goes to Washington will begin shooting in October and be released in 2015.
Phonier than a goldbricking ass, the story was loaded with hints to its fake-titude, including a quote from non-existent New York Times film critic Paul Horner, promised cameos by Ron and Rand Paul and, oh yeah, the source of this cult-classic news: “The Ass Press.”
Examiner.com's Alex Webb, who is on the Phoenix Cannabis Culture beat and runs a blog called WeedGeist, picked up the scoop and ran with it, although he later conceded he'd been duped.
Also stung was CNN and, yes Virginia, the Los Angeles CBS affiliate, which posted the fake news on its website Thursday.
By the end of the day, the headline had changed from “'The Dude' is Back! Big Lebowski 2 to Start Filming in October” to “Big Lebowski Fans?
That Sequel isn't on the Horizon,” with this note: “Not so fast Lebowski fans! We are now told that this story is bogus!”
The ruse abides.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.