Ryan Tubridy was forced to correct a mistake on Tuesday after Morning Ireland was tricked by a Twitter account that reported the death of a famous author.
British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, a Nobel laureate who told Ryan he had written two of his favorite books, was trending on Twitter following a Twitter account claiming that Faber and Faber had died.
The account that Hoax tweeted had only been tweeted four times: two of the tweets announced that Mr Ishiguro, while a third confirmed that the account was a hoax “created by Italian journalist Tommaso Debendetti.”
Mr Debendetti, who previously worked as a freelance journalist who sold fake interviews to unverified Italian publications, had previously falsely reported the deaths of Pope Benedict XVI, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Fidel Castro.
Morning Ireland reported the news on Tuesday morning as true, saying “Sad news from the literary world. Just in the last minutes, Faber Books announced that Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro has died suddenly at the age of 67 and that an official announcement should be made later this morning. ‘
When Ryan arrived on the show an hour later, it was confirmed that Mr Ishiguro had not died, and the account, which envisions Faber and Faber, was a fake.
“The author has been reported dead,” Ryan said this morning. ‘But the truth of the matter, it seems he’s not dead.
“While it’s been reported online in Morning Ireland in the last hour, we reviewed it above and sure enough, the news came from a fake Twitter account that was reporting as Faber Books.”
Ryan confirmed that the author was alive, and asked the person who created the false account his reasons for telling people he was dead.
‘[Mr Ishigiro] is very much alive. It’s amazing how fake news works – who woke up this morning and thought “Do you know what I’m doing today? I’ll put up a hoax and I’ll kill Ishigoru with a false account.
Elsewhere, Ryan’s St Patrick’s Day edition of the Late Late Show surprised the audience, with one of the main highlights being Olympian Kellie Harrington’s appearance alongside Hollywood star John C. Reilly.
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