CNN and fact checking (was Pynchon pix)

[Peter Giordano]

The person who has successfully gotten national news coverage for his
various hoaxes
over a number of years is Joey Skaggs - For example, in 1992 the networks
reported (as
a true story) his "Port-O-Fess" hoax at the 1992 Democratic Convention -
Hair Today. Ltd. got
coverage as a cure for baldness, and he created Baba Wa Simba, as a new age
guru who could
"cure the wounded animal in all of us" - Then there was the Celebrity Sprem
bank - CNN gave
him a lot of time during the OJ trial (because they fell for his hoax)
when, as Dr. Joseph Bonuso,
he claimed to have developed the "Solomon" computer program would determine
the proper
outcome of a court case - For more information see THE NEW YORKER 2/5/96
(p.24) or
THE NY TIMES MAGAZINE 7/14/94, etc.

My point?  I don't know and I don't care if TRP appeared on CNN the other
night - Certainly
it doesn't add anything to my understanding of his work - Nor do I care
when somebody
who had a passing relationship to the guy 30 years ago claims to be able to
pick him
out in a crowd (one suspects that you could throw a dart at the picture and
be just as correct)
 - I do think that this sort of feeding frenzy, (is that him?!!! Oh, you
saw him in
a subway? let me touch the hem of your robe!), this willingness
on the part of CNN to violate TRP's privacy, the eagerness of others to
cash in on
incidentals of TRP's life decades ago is a perverse example of exactly what
TRP warns
us of in his fiction

Basically, CNN had no story so they grabbed for straws

Peter Giordano
Williams College
Williamstown, MA