Free Republic

June 30, 2003 A Test Story Morphs Into a Heady RumorBy JIM RUTENBERG he week before last, a rumor swept Washington that Ronald Reagan had died. The story first wound its way through Republican circles, then moved on to the State Department, and finally reached House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert's office. The source of the report was ABC News. But the staff of ABC News never actually thought Mr. Reagan was dead. Rather, it seems, the word spread as the staff took part in one of the division's now common breaking-news drills, which news executives concocted to make sure the...

APRIL 16--While all news organizations prepare obituaries in advance of the deaths of famous individuals, the folks at CNN inadvertently gave the Internet-surfing public a chance to preview how the network's web site would note the demise of Vice President Dick Cheney, Ronald Reagan, and a few other prominent figures. Until earlier this afternoon, a CNN server housed mock-ups of web pages announcing the yet-to-happen deaths. The CNN pages, which were discovered by the intrepid folks at fark.com, were yanked about 20 minutes after being exposed (though TSG was able to grab a few of the pages for posterity's sake)....