Rebecca Black pregnancy rumors spread after fake CNN iReport

Posted by Bradley Wint on 15/05/2011

What do you get when you combine some Photoshop magic and an unverified CNN iReport? The fact that Rebecca Black is pregnant of course! Well she’s not really pregnant but it made for an awesome rumor.

For those who know about CNN’s iReport, it’s a service where users like you and me can report stories from the front line so the news gets to CNN faster. Users can write up full stories including pictures and videos of whatever incident or situation they are reporting about. However only “vetted” stories make it to CNN’s front desk, while a lot of non-vetted stories can sometimes be just play SPAM or crap.

A wise soul decided to write a full-fledged fake story about the Internet’s infamous sensation Rebecca Black, even including a photoshopped image of her announcing being pregnant on 5/15/11. While we were not able to get a copy of the actual story itself, it was enough to cause quite a stir on Twitter, with most statuses link to the now dead iReport story.

CNN reports that Rebecca Black is pregnant. Guess she chose the back seat! http://t.co/NlAOu2c

May 15, 2011 11:45 am via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@flyosity

Mike Rundle

If you visit the story page now, you will be greeted with a Story Not Available page, with a disclaimer explaining which stories are to be trusted.

Welcome to iReport, where people take part in the news with CNN. Your voice, together with other iReporters, helps shape how and what CNN covers every day.

So you know: iReport is the way people like you report the news. The stories in this section are not edited, fact-checked or screened before they post. Only ones marked ‘CNN iReport’ have been vetted by CNN.

If you look at the image at the top of this post, there is a big disclaimer on the image stating that the story was not vetted by CNN, but I guess anything on CNN passes for the truth. Sounds like a similar incident when 4chan got Twitter and Facebook to believe that Justin Bieber died in a car accident.

Thanks Ronnie for the tip!