The Globe and Mail and a number of other media outlets fell for a Twitter hoax during a shooting at the Los Angeles International Airport on Friday.
A tweet from an account called @HeadIineNews claimed that former NSA director Michael Hayden had been shot at the airport. The fake account appeared similar to @BreakingNews, a popular account that tweets news updates but @HeadIineNews had fewer than a dozen tweets . The appearance of the fake account has since been changed.
Gawker is reporting that the Globe and Mail, Sun News Network and even the BBC fell for the hoax.
The Globe and Mail initially included the death report in their story but later realized the error and edited the story to state that "Earlier reports that a former National Security Agency chief was shot dead were a hoax." The paper also issued a correction.
The Globe may have sparked more confusion by initially putting an Associated Press and Reuters byline on the story that included the erroneous tweet. The byline also been changed in later versions.
Media critic Mathew Ingram tweeted at length about the Globe's error.
Media critic Craig Silverman also commented on the Globe's mistake.