Campus Hoax

Google it, if you don't know what it was

Less than a year ago, comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's hoax interviews - primarily with conservative types - appeared on Showtime. Example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHvjHbL2utk

The right-wing conspiracy theory website InfoWars apparently pulled off the same sort of hoax on UCLA students. An interviewer, dressed as a stereotyped "progressive" student, got students on campus to sign a petition to send conservative students to compulsory reeducation camps, and put the results on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZY5EQnJL74

There is undoubtedly a lesson to be learned here. The Bruin write-up on this affair suggests that not everyone has learned it.

Excerpt:

A student government official signed (the) petition... 

The name of the interviewer might have been a clue.

Jamie Kennerk who was featured in the video and is the Undergraduate Students Association Council external vice president, said she feels the video does not portray her interaction with Bennett fairly. She added she felt it was her responsibility as a student government official to interact with students who approach her with any idea.

“When you’re talking to someone out on Bruin Walk, you’re primed in a different way than you are when reading a story with a kind of gotcha headline,” Kennerk said.

When asked if she wanted to put Trump supporters in concentration camps, Kennerk said she did not.

“Absolutely no, I do not support that,” Kennerk said...

Full story at http://dailybruin.com/2019/03/04/right-wing-media-outlet-releases-misleading-video-of-students-signing-petition/