Today is April 1, otherwise known as April Fools’ Day.
A lot of people like to create jokes and such to fool the general population, and some of the jokes are pretty funny. Just look at what YouTube is doing today, it’s stinkin’ genius.
But alas, people like me have taken April Fools’ jokes too far. Like in ‘07, when I proclaimed on my blog that my relationship with my then-girlfriend was over. Turns out I pre-dated the actual announcement by 19 days.
Since then, I’ve not really done anything on April Fools’ because that was the biggest example of something I said or did coming back to haunt me.
So imagine my surprise this morning when I see on Life of Jason that he posts several big names coming to town for the Springfield Park Board’s summer concert series. After seeing names like DecemberRadio, then the ultimate kicker being Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, it was immediately apparent to me that this was an April Fools’ joke and I thought it was a pretty decent one.
Unfortunately, the Park Board didn’t seem to think so, as stated in a comment on the site:
It looks like this year’s April Fool’s joke on Life of Jason has been targeted toward the Park Board. This fictitious lineup of entertainers was not released by the Park Board. We ask that the administrator of this site please remove the misleading information immediately. A formal release from Parks Public Information Administrator Bob Nelson will be released shortly to all local media. Unfortunately, the fictitious information has already mislead several citizens and local media outlets. For more information, contact the Park Board directly at (417) 864-1049 or visit our official Web site at http://www.parkboard.org.
- Bob Nelson, Springfield-Greene County Park Board
Whoever got duped by that April Fools Day joke was severely punked. I want to know which media outlets actually believed the information.
Remember people, before you believe anything remotely outlandish today, it’s April 1.
Jason’s also mentioned in our lead 1A story tonight, for posting inaccurate information about Jim O’Neal. Ah, the power of blogs. Wrong blogs.
Dude has made quite the name for himself today.
Check this
and
this
Dude’s making quite a name for himself when the Park Board takes an April Fools’ joke that seriously and if Jim O’Neal has to refute erroneous statements seen on his blog.
I still want to know which media outlets were punked. I never went to college but I did learn first and foremost in military J-school that you always look for an official word such as a press release or even a phone call to an organization first, before you trust any other source.
Apparently Susan Wade, who is the voice behind the curtain at the Springfield CVB twitter account, posted the information on the CVB site. Here’s her twit:
NOT COO!. A local blogger’s prank was to post a bogus list of Park Board concerts, which we shared. Sorry for the misinfo. #SGF #inSGFMO
But it’s Jason’s fault :)
CVB shouldn’t have run with the info. For shame!
In college, I wrote an April Fool’s column, saying I’d switched to conservatism. A girl I met later said she displayed it as the power of God in converting even the most stubborn liberals.
In 2005, I posted an April Fool’s joke on my blog, saying I was quitting and handing it off to my conservative cousin. Then I had “him” write. I got genuinely emotional responses thanking me for the reads and really angry heckling for the “new guy.” I lost a lot of readers I never got back, especially after I disclosed the joke.
Jason considers himself a serious citizen-journalist, and apparently so does the city and other media outlets. I never understood why, frankly, but he made that uphill climb. He just made it that much harder for himself.
Last paragraph is very true, Ian.
It was all I could do to not post an April Fool’s joke that we have become the Springfield News-Twitter.
You know, all your news in 140 words or less!
Example:
“Sinkhole on Weaver, OMG. Checkin 2 see how big it is.” (posted at 4:30 from web)