The teenager who sold raunchy photos of his mum on TradeMe after discovering them in the family garage caused something of a kafuffle this week.

After his TradeMe inspired notoriety, Michael Chal appeared on Close Up last Wednesday to give an account of his TradeMe experience.

Soon after this appearance, Close Up learned that despite Chal’s assurances to the contrary, it had been duped.  The programme’s producer, Mike Valintine, seemed more than a tad miffed about the deception, and was reported as saying Chal “lied through and through”.  This behaviour was described as “despicable”, and the Chal was called a “fool”.

After this outburst, and the headlines labelling Chal an “internet liar”, it was surprising to see him, together with his co-conspirator, again on Close Up last night.  Here we learned that Chal had not lied, he’d merely presented a fable.  Just like 20-year-old French Rugby centre Mathieu Bastareaud!

Chal and his mate proudly told us that they’d had job offers arising from their fables. So, the end does justify the means after all, and liars do prosper.  Social media is setting new standards, but let’s be careful where this takes us, as Michael Chal’s story was nothing but an orchestrated litany of fables.

Tags: Bastareaud, Close Up, Michael Chal, Mike Valintine, Social Media, TradeMe

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 at 2:54 pm and is filed under Crisis Communications, Health, Journalism, Media landscape, Politics, PR Matters, Social Media, Trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.