Glurge topped with schadenfreude - delicious and nutritious, with 100% of your RDA of misanthropy!

[missroserose]

Link stolen from 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?

Comments

[likable-lemur.livejournal.com]

Nice try...but she's going to have to make another go for her her Moist von Lipwig Fooling the Culpably Stupid badge.

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

*giggles* We should totally design that, and an Honorable Mention award for cases like this.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

If she'd made money off of it, she could have gotten the Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler award, though.

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

"Dead baby, inna blanket! Guaranteed no doll! Fifteen pence, annat's cuttin' me own throat!"

...and I think I just ruined any possible chance I might've had left of a political career. :D

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

Like you wanted one to begin with.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Sad thing is locally there was a woman who'd talk to local groups and share her inspirational story about surviving the Bataan death march, lecture kids on teen pregnancy prevention.... Turns out she wasn't a Bataan survivor. And then it got weird. On one level, yeah, it's tempting to be sad for her, but one of my favorite co-workers got canned for believing her, after 28 years of exemplary service. It may be all about ego and insecurities when these things unspool to begin with, but they can create an impressive amount of collateral damage before they subside.

And yeah, the "doll" cracks me up -- reminds me of a not-dissimilar situation a few years ago, just at the opposite end of the emotionally-manipulative spectrum.

[errant-variable.livejournal.com]

I have ten points!
What do I do with them?

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

If I were you, I'd transfer them to long-term bonds. The market is still awfully volatile, but if you're feeling risky, then you might look into the foreign gold markets.

[errant-variable.livejournal.com]

I've never been one for supporting gold diggers. :(

[amanda_lodden.livejournal.com]

Is it terribly wrong that I'm suddenly inclined to write a "based on a true story" novel of someone just like April's mom (i.e., a totally fake account but designed to hit the hot buttons of a segment of the population) and then see if I can get it published? I'm betting that a little savvy marketing and giving away a few of the more emotional chapters for free would result in huge sales.

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

Congratulations, I think you've just hit on how almost every Oprah guest star makes their name. :D