What gives lately with these hoaxes?
First, the wild ride of a Colorado “balloon boy” believed trapped in a runaway helium balloon turned out to be nothing more than a publicity stunt. Live media coverage of the spectacle attracted millions of concerned viewers before the local sheriff deemed the event a hoax.
Then today comes word that several media organizations fell for a fake news release announcing that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce purportedly dropped its longstanding opposition to climate change legislation. MSNBC reported the release live as breaking news, and Reuters news service filed a wire brief that several other publications picked up. The outfit behind the prank was the Yes Men, a renegade group of pranksters bent on poking corporate American in the eye.
The media have been taken in by hoaxes before and sometimes even perpetrated them.
How do we avoid this? For starters, good journalists should always verify press releases and Web site information before publishing. Secondly, journalists should seek multiple sources of information. And of course, journalists should approach all potential stories with a critical eye.
But in the case of the balloon boy, should the media have treated this “news event” with more skepticism, to the point of declining to cover the event until it was a confirmed emergency? Or were they right to simply follow the story wherever it led — even if that was over 60 miles of Colorado fields?
Honors Intro to Media Writing 
I would say we are doomed to gullibility. Simple math would have given the answer to the question, “Is Falcon in the balloon?”. Even a CSU professor failed to calculate correctly. However (see my link) , a dozen or so of us with “critical eyes” pushed a few buttons on a 2-dollar calculator and determined it had to be a hoax.
Good luck, and enjoy your time at WKU!