2 Strange Hoaxes. Or Not.

A couple of extremely weird hoaxes have been exposed recently. Or maybe they haven’t. One might have been was a 9/11 Truther pseudocide, the other isn’t really a hoax but might be a hoax by way of its non-hoaxiness.

Update: The Truther, Ace Baker, is alive and “well”. Scroll down for info.

On January 6, California sound technician and 9/11 Truther Ace Baker was a guest on Jim Fetzer’s radio show. (I’m not sure what show this is, as Kevin Barrett quit co-hosting GCN’s “The Dynamic Duo” with Fetzer last year.)
Fetzer is the University of Minnesota-Duluth philosophy prof who insists the Zapruder film is fake, and has embraced no-plane, space-laser theories about the destruction of the World Trade Center. Ace Baker is also a no-plane theorist, and a proponent of the idea that most (or all) of the TV footage on September 11 was altered and/or faked. You can see lots of his “research” on YouTube.
As you may know, no-planers and TV-fakery people are at the very bottom of the Truther food chain. Other Truthers will cross an entire continent just to avoid walking on the same side of the street with one of them.

Perhaps this ostracism was one reason that Baker seemed so depressed on the air. He complained bitterly about criticism he has received from other Truthers. Then, tearfully, he apologized to his wife and daughters for being away from them so often due to his 9/11 work. “I hope you will forgive me someday.” He told his parents he missed them. All the while, Fetzer tried to cut in with comforting words and assurances that Ace’s troubles will pass; haven’t all great thinkers been persecuted in their time?

“We need you, Ace.”

Seconds later, Ace blurted, “I’m comin’ home!” This was followed by a percussive sound that could have been a gunshot. Then silence.

Horrified listeners waited as Fetzer called for help and tried to reconnect with Ace. The show was abruptly cut short.

Ace Baker Suicide (?) on Fetzer’s Show

So it came as a rather nasty shock when Matt revealed to an audience at the December ’08 Entertainment Gathering that the whole thing had been staged. Calmly and humourously, he explained that the YouTube commenters who had been pointing out suspicious flaws in his film were right all along: Matt was an actor hired to do his jig in front of a blue screen. The exotic locales were added in later, along with animatronic mannequins made to look like dancing natives.

Wait, what? And did he just say this was all done with Photoshop?

You’ve been punk’d, ladies and gentleman. And so have all the news outlets who soberly reported the non-hoax hoax. Matt Harding may or may not be an actor, but those dancing kids are certainly real. Harding was having some fun with all the cynical, nitpicky armchair video analysts who said it was all fake. See for yourself…

Matt “Confesses”

The question is, does Matt’s hoaxily confessing to a hoax that wasn’t a hoax constitute a hoax?