ARE CRACK SQUIRRELS URBAN MYTHS OR REAL?
I am frankly astonished to discover that this story has found new life after 20 years. Here’s the history, as best as I can recall: Around 1984, the US supermarket tabloid Weekly World News ran a completely fictional article on crack-addicted squirrels in a New York City park. According to the story, squirrels in need of a fix had taken to attacking the ankles of unwitting parkgoers. The piece was complete with phony quotations from fictional city officials. In apparent ignorance of the hoax, a Robert Maxwell-owned London tab picked up the Weekly World News article and ran it as real news, never bothering to check the sources. At this time, the Maxwell v. Rupert Murdoch battle was raging in London. The Murdoch-owned New York Post did the investigating the London paper had omitted. In short order, reporters learned that the quoted official(s) did not exist and traced the story back to the Weekly World News. The Post ran a prominent article mocking the London paper’s credulity. Approxima
