Images: High-tech hoaxes and media mess-ups

The Chicago Daily Tribune really fouled up in its November 3, 1948 early edition: it printed the wrong results from the previous night's presidential election. After relying too heavily on predictive poll data, the Tribune printed a headline saying that Thomas E. Dewey had defeated Harry S Truman; in fact, Truman had won handily.

Since other newspapers had the correct election results that morning, the public soon knew that the Tribune had been erroneous. But even though it didn't result in mass misconception, this was still an embarrassing media snafu.

Photo by Library of Congress

Caption by Michelle Meyers