NPR has a tradition of releasing an April Fool's Day story every year.
They're not obvious about revealing the joke, so they end up fooling a fair number of people every year.
Morning Edition goes 3-D
Here's this morning story from "Jen Sands-Windsor" about people opting for eye surgery so they can improve their 3-D movie experience:
People were definitely fooled.
Michigan Radio's Rina Miller said she was "hollering while driving about that stupid woman risking her vision for the sake of 3-D movies. Got me!"
And Facebook fan Barb said, "Boy, am I gullible! I was complaining to my husband about this crazy surgery. Guess I gotta keep my radar on today. :)"
And Jim West wrote about it on his blog - telling people to check the story out as a sign of the times:
When NPR reported this today I thought for sure they would end it with ‘April Fools!’- but they didn’t. Which can only mean that people are getting crazier by the minute...What craziness rules these days.
Someone let Jim know it was a joke to which he responded, "i had that feeling but since they never ended with ‘april fools’ …. well, it’s npr. i trust them. im gullible."
Marketplace gets in the game
Our Facebook fan Brian W. pointed out another April Fools story from the Marketplace Morning Report.
David Brancaccio brought us this report "France's new measure of well-being: Boredom."
Brancaccio reported:
In addition to new measures of well-being in his country, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said today there must be balance, calling for new, regular government surveys of public levels of "ennui," or boredom. Sarkozy said the intention is to "Keep France French" by insuring that Anglo-American-style happiness does not get out of hand.
Take a listen:
Here & Now producers get into the game with its Twitter Time story
The producers fooled host Robin Young with this fictitious story (it's wonderful to hear her surprise when she discovers the whole interview was a joke).
They set Young up to interview a radio station manager who was turning his airwaves over to Twitter as a way to attract a younger audience.
The Tweets, he tells Young, are converted to audio using special computer software.
Station Manager @smittyd tells Young it's "a world that is happening right now, Robin - not however many hours ago as the traditional media might report it."
From the Here & Now:
A small public radio station on the Eastern Shore of Maryland is taking social media to the next level. The station, WAFD-FM, in Pocomoke, Md. has turned over its airwaves to Twitter. From 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on weekdays, listeners will hear a constant stream of “tweets” to the station.
I hear Pocomoke is lovely this time of year.
Listen to Tweets turned to audio here. "You gotta develop an ear for it."
You can also hear the bleeped out tweets. The offending words are replaced with "NPR News."
On Here & Now's comment section Jesse wrote:
I'm thinking, "this is the dumbest idea I have ever heard." Then, boom! Ya got me!
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