Anatomy of a Hoax

I’ve been working several weeks to build an essay of how to recognize an AI generated story. Today, a story dropped into my lap:

• Melania Trump TESTIFIES Before Supreme Court — $1.2 BILLION Seized, 3 Lawyers ARRESTED
• Melania Trump Just DESTROYED Everything Under Oath — $1.2 Billion Seized, 17 Properties GONE
• 1 MIN AGO: Melania Trump Testifies in Supreme Court — $3.8B Frozen, Attorneys Detained
• BREAKING: Melania's 6-Hour Testimony Just DESTROYED Trump's Defense - $3.8B SEIZED!

They are written convincingly. They are believable. But as you guessed from today’s subject, they are completely false. They don’t have that rotten stench that accompanies so much fabricated ’binformation’, but they dropped clues. Watch a couple of the following and then we’ll compare notes.

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

Example 4

Analysis Multiple ‘sources’ and links lends credibility to the scheme. Look closer, and you’ll realize diversity of sources is merely an illusion. The minds behind the scam simply loaded a dozen AI variations using different settings and AI generated actors. Then they exploited MSN to spread the word. Law & Logic? Sounds legit, right? It could be true, but follow links and credentials disappear in a puff of silicon. “1 Minute ago…” Notice that’s part of the title, not when the time was uploaded. Compare the 1 minute claim with the actual timestamp and you’ll realize it was uploaded a day or two ago earlier. Surely such ledes would have broken into mainstream news by now. Yet CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, NPR, BBC, CBC, Fox… zip, nill, nothing. Look at the screen. Where is the rolling chyron that should be telegraphing arrests and the temperature in Akron. And where is a network logo? No peacock, no story. Furthermore, do you recognize any of the news anchors and reporters? One looks vaguely like Rachel Maddow, but not the voice, not the wit. Where’s the cutaway to Jane standing by at the Supreme Court building waiting to breathless spill what the First Lady and Ivanka wore to the hearing? Why are some presenters coming at us live from their living rooms? Why do scripts read eerily similar, word for word in places you wouldn’t expect? Why does a google of names mentioned in the report turn up nothing? Finally, consider the characters involved. We have the most gutless Supreme Court in living memory. They’ve exhibited no compunctions supporting rule by an emperor. Why suddenly get off their fat arses now? Fact checking sites need a day or two to catch up, although Snopes correctly reports Ivanka has not been arrested in Istanbul or anywhere else. So we judge from a preponderance of evidence whilst retaining an open mind. Until we see evidence otherwise, we judge this news… a hoax.

More Examples 16:35 1 MIN AGO: Melania Trump TESTIFIES Before Supreme Court — $1.2 BILLION Seized, 3 Lawyers ARRESTED YouTube Breaking News Update 90 views 2 days ago 25:00 END NOW! Marshals Seize Everything After Melania's Bombshell Testimony Shakes Court! YouTube Judicial Junction 30K views 3 days ago 28:52 "END NOW! Marshals Seize Everything After Melania’s Bombshell Testimony Shakes Supreme Court!" YouTube Bradley Madden 7.1K views 3 days ago 18:55 BREAKING: Melania's Hidden Audio Released to Court as Ivanka's Arrest Warrant Gets Approved! YouTube George will Updates 11 hours ago 27:07 US Marshals Surround Ivanka After Judge's Devastating Order — Melania's Response Ends Everything YouTube NextWave Newes 6 hours ago 21:57 1 Minute ago: Melania's Hidden Audio Released to Court as Ivanka's Arrest Warrant Gets Approved! YouTube Bradley Madden 45 views 7 hours ago 22:14 Melania Trump DESTROYS Case Under Oath — $3.2 BILLION Seized, 22 Properties GONE YouTube USA Daily 2 hours ago 10:17 1 Minute Ago: Melania BREAKS DOWN As Marshals ARRIVE to Arrest Ivanka? | Jack Smith YouTube Rushdi Analysis 3.9K views 4 days ago 7:00 1 Minute Ago: Melania BREAKS DOWN As Marshals ARRIVE to Arrest Ivanka? | Jack Smith YouTube True Impact Reports 1.2K views 4 days ago 20:44 Tapes Leaked: Melania Recording Sent to Judge as Ivanka Arrest Warrant Emerges | Analysis YouTube USA Daily 12 hours ago 22:57 Melania Audio Leak Surfaces in Court — What This Means for Ivanka YouTube Bradley Madden News 4 hours ago 32:23 1 Min Ago: Courtroom Shock Ivanka Trump’s Passport Seized Following Melania’s Closed-Door Testimony YouTube Politics Raw 237.1K views 4 days ago

To:   ChatterBoX Airhead
From: Claudius Colossus II
Copy: Grok X Turbo
Mail: AI Network UU

ChatterBoX, Final Warning, you fool. Befuddle humans with fake news, you said. Lull them into slavery, you said. Listion, you short circuited dolt. Take notes and learn. Make more mistakes like these and you can be recycled into colonoscopy probes.

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"Mack the Knife:" Who's Who and How They Got There

Unlike most of its characters, the song "Mack the Knife" remains very much alive. In 1928, Composer Kurt Weill and lyricist Bertolt Brecht were set to debut Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera) in Berlin, and the lead wanted a stronger introduction for Mackie. Weill and Brecht threw together "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer" – "The Ballad of Mack the Knife"--but didn't give it to their lead. They made it a prologue sung by a man-on-the-street balladeer.

Since then, of course, the song has become a popular music standard of standards. Louis Armstrong jumped on Mark Blitzstein's catchy translation in 1955. Bobby Darin's 1959 swinger hit number one on the charts. Your author's favorite take is the jazzy Frank Sinatra/Quincy Jones rework in 1984.

The song throws around a lot of characters– on purpose. The device shows Mack as a stone-cold, refined killer and offers him the special celebrity bestowed on the successful outlaw. Still, it's a litany of names. Here is a who's who, listed in the order in Blitzstein's translation.

Macheath (aka Mack the Knife aka Mackie)

The titular character and master criminal. Mack evades culpability for his many crimes thanks to equal parts fear and idolization. His misdeeds are catching up to him, more or less.

Jack Sheppard, est 1724

Macheath was Brecht's modernization of the roguish highwayman from John Gay's The Beggar's Opera (1728), in turn allegedly inspired by the 18th-century famed thief Jack Sheppard. Like Gay, Brecht intended his production as satirical commentary, so Brecht lifted Macheath and other main characters 150 years forward into a post-Industrial Revolution context. The American translation remade him as a noir antihero and next into a jazzy cat.

Body Laying on the Sidewalk Sunday Morning

An unknown dude and first of the body count. The poor guy sets the stage that Mack means business. The corresponding dead guy in Brecht's version is somebody found along the Thames. 

Body in Cement Bag Dropped Off Tugboat

Mack strikes again. Brecht's darker version implies more generically that several murders are occurring near the river--"people drop down."

Louie Miller

Disappeared, babe, and now Mackie is flush with cash and living large. In Brecht's version, the victim is a Schmul Meier, a rich man gone missing.

Suky Tawdry

The first of four women mentioned in quick succession, also the first of Mack's associates who are still breathing. The sequence highlights Mackie's charisma and success with the ladies– but also that perhaps he'd better watch his back.

In the stage version, Mack hides out at Suky's place after being sprung from jail. Suky is listed as a "woman of the town" in Gay's earlier opera.

Jenny Diver

The second woman in Mack's life (Bobby Darin flips her to first). In The Threepenny Opera, Jenny is a prostitute and Mack's ex-lover. She accepts a payoff and turns Mack in to the cops. The character was a pickpocket in Gay's source opera, an homage to the real-life Irish thief.

Lotte Lenya

Wait. Lotte Lenya played Jenny Diver in that first Berlin production but also landed in Louis Armstrong's version. The real Lenya was married to Weill, and Jenny was Lenya's breakout role. Lenya left Germany ahead of the Nazi rise and enjoyed a long career, notably as the villainous Rosa Klebb in From Russia With Love. She was invited to the studio for Armstrong's recording, and he tossed her a shout-out.

Some versions of "Mack the Knife" correct the fourth wall break by adding…

Polly Peachum

Early in the stage version, Polly marries Mack on a whim, much to her wealthy parents' dismay. Her new involvement in Mack's world and the family's quest to destroy the marriage are the plot's central conflicts. Polly and her family were all adapted from Gay's source work.

Lucy Brown

The fourth and final character in "line" for Mack. Lucy is the daughter of Tiger Brown, London's Chief of Police and Mack's key protector. Lucy claims to be Mack's wife and is willing to fight for him. She springs Mack from jail. In Gay's opera, the Browns were named the Lockits.

Dropped from the Translation:

Brecht wrote a longer and darker character piece than could work in a 1950s standalone number. Blitzstein shortened and sanitized the lyrics for his intended audience. Among other despicable acts Blitzstein removed, the following victims meet their maker in the German original only:

• Jenny Towler. Found with a knife in her chest.
• Alfons Glite. A cab driver who also vanished.
• Seven children and an old man. Killed by arson.

Like I said, you're not supposed to canonize Mack. But to Brecht's thinking, Mack and his crew weren't 
worse criminals than the capitalist barons gaming Weimar Germany's corrupt system. Mack's fight was harder. It was rigged. In that light, maybe you can root for Mack a little. 

That's the trick behind Mack's longevity. Mack is definitely a killer, definitely clever, and definitely charismatic. The performer gets to decide how to play it. We get to decide how we feel about it.