The interwebs are all atwitter with "news" that Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo broke both of his legs in a car accident. This would be terrible, except for the fact that Romo's legs are working just fine.
In case you didn't already know it, Global Associated News likes to publish fake news stories. This isn't exactly a new idea, but unlike, say, The Onion, GAN masquerades as a legitimate news source. True, there is a fine print disclaimer at the bottom of the site, but the placement and text size attract little attention.
GAN is the source of several recent celebrity hoaxes, including Adam Sandler's death in a snowboarding accident. Possibly adding to the confusion is that the site has a nifty little program that automatically changes the dateline to correspond with today's date.
This also makes it hard to determine when exactly certain hoaxes begin. Judging by the flurry of Tony talk on Twitter, we're pegging the initial Romo prank went down on sometime February 18.
Wow. Tony Romo was hit by a 76-year-old woman today "at a high rate of speed" & BOTH of his legs were visibly broken at the scene. #terrible
— Courtney Waters (@Courtneywtrs) February 19, 2013Breaking News: reportedly, Tony Romo has broken both of his legs in a traffic accident
— Matthew Martin (@mattmartin21) February 19, 2013So did y'all catch that? TONY ROMO'S LEGS ARE BROKEN?
— ♕ KRYSTEN ♕ (@krystenlynn12) February 19, 2013Way to go "fans" tony romo was In a accident.. & now his legs are broken! Thanks for jinxing him.. 😤
— Gabriel Lozano III (@OriginalllGl) February 19, 2013Hey @jimcrandell are people so sick of Tony Romo that they would have a fake story out stating both his legs got broken? Oh wait, it did
— Shawn Olmstead (@wildarms007) February 19, 2013Contrary to popular belief, Tony Romo still has two fully functioning legs.
