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sigma7.
So this woman has a blog/Facebook/Twitter setup, all centered around telling the story of her Very Difficult Pregnancy - how her soon-to-be daughter had been diagnosed with a fatal disease in utero, and how she wasn't getting an abortion no matter what, and yadda yadda yadda. This being The Internet, the results were pretty predictable:
Every night for the last two months, thousands of abortion opponents across the nation logged on to a blog run by the suburban Chicago woman who identified herself only as "B" or "April's Mom."
People said they prayed that God would save her pregnancy. They e-mailed her photos of their children dressed in pink, bought campaign T-shirts, shared tales of personal heartache and redemption, and sent letters and gifts to an Oak Lawn P.O. box in support.
As more and more people were drawn to her compelling tale, eager advertisers were lining up. And established parenting Web sites that oppose abortion were promoting her blog -- which included biblical quotes, anti-abortion messages and a soundtrack of inspirational Christian pop songs.
By Sunday night, when "April's Mom" claimed to have given birth to her "miracle baby" -- blogging that April Rose had survived a home birth only to die hours later -- her Web site had nearly a million hits.
Any guesses as to how this tragic tale ends?
Yep - it was all fake! Ten points each to the smart readers.
What totally cracks me up, though, was the way in which she was found out. She'd spent all this time so carefully crafting this story and roping people in, and then takes pictures of herself with her newborn - except that the "baby" is actually a doll. Surprise, surprise, a few people go "I have that same doll!" and the whole thing unravels from there. Really, how hard would it have been to just take a picture of the bundle of blankets, or (even better) spin a sob story about how the pictures are too personal to post?
sigma7.So this woman has a blog/Facebook/Twitter setup, all centered around telling the story of her Very Difficult Pregnancy - how her soon-to-be daughter had been diagnosed with a fatal disease in utero, and how she wasn't getting an abortion no matter what, and yadda yadda yadda. This being The Internet, the results were pretty predictable:
Every night for the last two months, thousands of abortion opponents across the nation logged on to a blog run by the suburban Chicago woman who identified herself only as "B" or "April's Mom."
People said they prayed that God would save her pregnancy. They e-mailed her photos of their children dressed in pink, bought campaign T-shirts, shared tales of personal heartache and redemption, and sent letters and gifts to an Oak Lawn P.O. box in support.
As more and more people were drawn to her compelling tale, eager advertisers were lining up. And established parenting Web sites that oppose abortion were promoting her blog -- which included biblical quotes, anti-abortion messages and a soundtrack of inspirational Christian pop songs.
By Sunday night, when "April's Mom" claimed to have given birth to her "miracle baby" -- blogging that April Rose had survived a home birth only to die hours later -- her Web site had nearly a million hits.
Any guesses as to how this tragic tale ends?
Yep - it was all fake! Ten points each to the smart readers.
What totally cracks me up, though, was the way in which she was found out. She'd spent all this time so carefully crafting this story and roping people in, and then takes pictures of herself with her newborn - except that the "baby" is actually a doll. Surprise, surprise, a few people go "I have that same doll!" and the whole thing unravels from there. Really, how hard would it have been to just take a picture of the bundle of blankets, or (even better) spin a sob story about how the pictures are too personal to post?
