City Brights: Zennie Abraham : Did RTL make fake "Michael Jackson alive video" as ad sales fell?Did RTL make fake "Michael Jackson alive video" as ad sales fell?
Two days ago a video surfaced that claimed to show Michael Jackson being escorted out of an LA County Coroner's ambulance in a dark tunnel. Given that few had the actual footage of the vehicle entering the hospital, and the design of the one in the video, it was hard to tell if it was real or fake.
The video made the rounds to many outlets around the World, and was the basis for my blog poll and video here.
I was waiting for a statement by the LA County Coroner's Office to officially debunk the matter, but now we have the forum-based news being propagated that German TV organization RTL created the fake video. I note it in this way because RTL has not as of this writing issued an official statement or press release; it's internet chatter. But given RTL's economic woes, it's logical they would do this.
UPDATE: Press release by RTL (in German)
What's RTL?
RTL Group is Europe's largest broadcast company, and RTL Television is a division in it. I discovered that Berlin-based RTL's facing a massive ad sales crisis, which undoubtedly led to the creation of this elaborate hoax. Over the last six months, RTL has lost $150 million. Gaining eyeballs around the World is RTL's desire and this "fake" project would be the perfect way to do it. But now RTL needs to make an official statement and post it under the keywords "rtl michael jackson" before this gets even more out of hand.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/abraham/detail?blogid=95&entry_id=46336#ixzz0PW0TWfFk