Topic: Media Prank

A segment on HLN regarding Edward Snowden joining Twitter is highlighted for a prank where an interviewee compared Snowden to the fictional character Edward Scissorhands. The host and control room failed to notice the interviewee was describing the plot of the Tim Burton film. Adam Curry suggests the segment might have been a "psyop" to distract from Snowden's immediate verification on Twitter.

KTVU news in San Francisco broadcasts a series of offensive, pun-based names for the pilots of Asiana Flight 214, including "Sum Ting Wong" and "Wi Tu Lo." The hosts analyze how the prank bypassed multiple layers of newsroom production and the NTSB's subsequent apology for an intern confirming the bogus names.

A Best Buy customer who returned a faulty cell phone without logging out of his Facebook account had his status updated by an employee to say he was "coming out" as gay. The prank resulted in the customer receiving numerous calls from concerned relatives and friends, highlighting the risks of mobile account security.