QCOSTARICA – Media fails on April Fools’ is not uncommon. On the day of jokes and hijinks the streamline news media, is not immune and in a rush to publish as much content as possible, always usually falls victim to pranks.
And while everyone loves a good April Fools’ Day joke, when they backfire, they don’t just wither away, they go down in history.
On Friday, Costa Rica’s premiere business online and print newspaper, La Republica, ran the story of the sale of the Torre Mercedes, in Paseo Colon, for a cool US$42 million dollars.
The purchase, according to La Republica was by the Costa Rican startup Slidebean.
The story was posted on the Slidebean website, including a picture of the building with the Slidebean logo at top, saying it had renamed its crown jewel as “Torre Slidebean” and it would be the new home for its 815 employees, from some 50 different nationalities. Slidebean, the New York company, that designs and creates presentations on demand with user provided content, said it had been negotiating the purchase since December 28 last year, and it had been kept a secret.
By Friday afternoon, the online edition of La Republica corrected the error, admitting it failed in its fact checking, confirming the sale with parties involved, relying solely on the Slidebean blog,
Slidean had posted the warning at the top of the article that the purchase was an April Fool’s prank on Costa Rica.
Luis Fernando Cascante, head of the news desk at La Republica, said they also failed in the “mandatory scepticism”, that such news could be absurd. Cascante offered readers the most sincere apologies.
In Costa Rica, April Fool’s pranks are not common on April 1, the pranks are doled out on December 28, the “dia de los inocentes” (day of the innocents).
Where you a victim of an April Fool’s prank? Or the author of one?
Use the comment section below to share your experience.
