The Old New Thing : Can you trust the Man on the Street interview?

The Old New Thing : Can you trust the Man on the Street interview?:

"That story from On the Media
reminded me of a related incident back when the hype surrounding
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was building.
The New York Times sent a reporter to cover
the people who had been waiting in line for months.
The first person interviewed is Sangay Kumar,
who claims to have flown in from Bombay just to see the movie.

A friend of mine read the article and started laughing.

Because my friend knows Mr. Kumar,
who it turns out is not actually from Bombay.
He's from Baltimore.
He was just waiting in line with everybody else and saw
a reporter coming and decided to put on a campy Indian accent
and make up a nutty story.
And the reporter bought it."