UMass Mao library book story is a hoax

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Saturday December 24, 2005 · 12:24 AM PST

2005/12/24 · 00:24

(From the diaries -- Plutonium Page. Please spread the word.)

The story of the student who received a visit from homeland security agents because he had checked out Mao's Little Red Book has now been confirmed to be a fabrication.

From the newspaper that originally broke the story:

NEW BEDFORD -- The UMass Dartmouth student who claimed to have been visited by Homeland Security agents over his request for "The Little Red Book" by Mao Zedong has admitted to making up the entire story.
The 22-year-old student tearfully admitted he made the story up to his history professor, Dr. Brian Glyn Williams, and his parents, after being confronted with the inconsistencies in his account.

Had the student stuck to his original story, it might never have been proved false.

But on Thursday, when the student told his tale in the office of UMass Dartmouth professor Dr. Robert Pontbriand to Dr. Williams, Dr. Pontbriand, university spokesman John Hoey and The Standard-Times, the student added new details.

This has been extensively blogged on this site in the last few days, including the following threads:

Dept of Homeland Security investigates college student's research paper?
UMass student visited by Homeland Security
Help!! Support UMass Dartmouth profs & freedom of study
Student gets visit from FBI after buying Mao's Little Red Book

Read the story. This kid was totally full of shit.

The people who I blame for this are the two professors. They should have never gone to the media about this without more thorough questioning of him about the story.

When we're wrong in promoting a story, we need to face up to it and move on. That's what makes us better than the opposition, who as we know, never own up to mistakes.

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UMass Mao library book story is a hoax

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