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Hoaxes, Hopes And Fears (Update: Lecture To Be Rescheduled)

Associated Press
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AP

Author Kevin Young says he started out writing about “why we deceive, and I ended up thinking about why we believe.” The result is the book Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts and Fake News. Young says there are many reasons we believe hoaxes, “but a lot of it is because we want to.” Updated January 30th 1:35p.m. Young's lecutre scheduled for January 31st at WMU has been canceled due to weather. The Center for the Humanities says it will be reschedlued. 

Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts and Fake News chronicles a history of hoaxes going back to P.T. Barnum. Young says Barnum didn’t invent the hoax, “but he came close to perfecting it.” Young says some of Barnum’s shows are disturbing, in part because of their use of race. But Young says they did prey upon people’s hopes. He says over time, hoaxes have played upon people’s fears and created greater cynicism and doubt.

Extended interivew with Kevin Young for WMUK's WestSouthwest podcast

Young’s book examines many different types of hoaxes, including fabricated stories in the media. Young says journalists should have high standards, but he says most of the journalistic hoaxes have been revealed by other reporters. Young says Washington Post Executive Editor Ben Bradlee acted admirably by being upfront when it was discovered that reporter Janet Cooke’s story about an eight year old heroin addict was fiction. The Post returned the Pulitzer Prize it won for the story, and Young says Bradlee also considered why he and others fell for the hoax.

As Young was trying to finish his book, new hoaxes kept coming to light. He says at some point he had to finish writing Bunk. Young says “sometimes I think about is there an epilogue?” Young says what he likes about the book is “I really was thinking about the history of the hoax, and it does apply then to the future of it, which is all around us.”

Gordon Evans became WMUK's Content Director in 2019 after more than 20 years as an anchor, host and reporter. A 1990 graduate of Michigan State, he began work at WMUK in 1996.
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