Word: hoax
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Washington, World War II hero Maynard H. ("Snuffy") Smith, 41, who won the Medal of Honor for some cool-headed shooting and lifesaving on an Eighth Air Force bomber, was sentenced to ten days in jail for turning in a false report in a suicide hoax. Smith, it was claimed, was trying for some publicity to help boost his chances for becoming governor of Virginia. The hoax: as a young mother pretended to jump from the sixth floor of a Y.W.C.A. building, Snuffy bravely crawled out on the ledge and "persuaded" her to come back...
...Said Hassett regretfully, "That's all in Mencken." "But I've seen a paper the American Medical Association drew up . . ." said the President. Hassett gave Mencken credit again. The President shook his head. "I'd swear those A.M.A. fellows didn't think it was a hoax...
...have to look far for evidence. The case is now perfectly clear in the grain-storage hoax of 1948. It is a story of perversion of Government responsibilities and powers−the story of a giant federal farm agency, backed by the people's dollars, deliberately driving down the price of grain to instill fear in the minds of farmers. It is a story of a Government agency spreading panic-using press, radio and speeches to paint a picture ... a false picture ... of the lack of storage space for grain...
...Rodney does his work well. When he announced that he planned to cover the Olympic Games in Helsinki, he gave this reason for going: "The very nature of sports and the spirit of sportsmanship inherent in such games has started to get in its licks against the inevitable war hoax." To finance his trip, the Worker started an "On to Helsinki" campaign, raised about $700 from its readers...
When he went to the court which must approve the sale, with his pledges, the bank called the employees' bid only "a piece of paper." One witness for the bank pointed out that it would be a "cruel hoax" to let the staff burden themselves with such an enormous debt. Ratliff and his lawyers answered that it was the employees who had made the Enquirer a successful paper, and that there is no reason why it will not continue to make money and pay off the debt. As a clincher, they offered to pay $7,500,000 in cash...