Beldner, an artist, teaches a St. Mary’s College class called “Pranks: Culture jamming as social activism.” Among his students’ projects this term was the distribution of a news release touting a fictional bar to be opened near the Moraga campus.
The news release was sent to the Times, the Associated Press and several other Bay Area newspapers. None published the information as news, although the Times ran a brief item on the hoax itself after a reporter spent several hours researching the nonexistent bar. —Matt Krupnick —Prank class tries to fool news outlets (Contra Costa Times)
I teach my news writing students about Joey Skaggs, and we all had a good laugh when I told them about his annual April Fool’s Day Parade press releases.
But I hope the college looks very closely at the ethics of teaching students to lie for credit.