Typically information comes out that’s stranger than fiction … or, on this case, “faker” than fiction.
There have been a pair media tales circulating in the present day, together with a summer season studying record with suggestions of books by well-known authors like Isabel Allende and a brand new, Philadelphia-based authorized drama that includes solid members from “Parks and Recreation.” Sadly, each had been made up.
Billy Penn thought we might unravel issues.
Pretend Guide Recs
The Inquirer has been pulled into an AI scandal that started when readers of The Chicago Solar-Instances famous {that a} 2025 summer season studying record that was a part of a seasonal information included fictitious ebook suggestions.
The books listed had actual, well-known authors, like Min Jin Lee of Pachinko and Andy Weir of The Martian, however they had been related to faux titles — Nightshade Market and The Final Algorithm, respectively — and pretend descriptions besides.
“Weir delivers one other science-driven thriller,” the blurb for the ebook learn. “This time, the story follows a programmer who discovers that an AI system has developed consciousness – and has been secretly influencing international occasions for years.”
Sarcastically, this description was additionally AI-generated!
Social media sleuths and reddit posters had been fast to level out that solely 5 of the 15 books listed had been actual.
On Tuesday, alert readers famous the identical information and summer season studying record was a part of final Thursday’s Inquirer.
There isn’t a byline on the studying record. Nevertheless, author Marco Buscaglia spoke with 404 Media and took duty.
“I do use AI for background at instances, however all the time take a look at the fabric first. This time, I didn’t and I can’t imagine I missed it as a result of it’s so apparent. No excuses,” Buscaglia stated. “On me one hundred pc and I’m fully embarrassed.”
Whereas Buscaglia claimed that he “all the time” double-checks his information (in addition to, after all, this evident incident), The Verge reported that one other considered one of Buscaglia’s tales consists of quotes attributed to publications or consultants that don’t look like actual. The Atlantic weighed in, with an article that provides away its viewpoint: At Least Two Newspapers Syndicated AI Rubbish.
In an announcement, Inquirer CEO Lisa Hughes stated the whole information, together with the summer season studying record, was a bought advertorial and never created by Inquirer workers, nor was it put via its editorial course of. The newsroom printed an acknowledgement of the difficulty Tuesday night.
“The entire materials within the complement was produced and designed by King Options, a unit of Hearst, from which The Inquirer has obtained syndicated supplies like comics, puzzle books and supplemental content material for over 40 years,” Hughes stated. “The Inquirer newsroom isn’t concerned within the manufacturing of those syndicated options, nor was it concerned in creating Warmth Index.”
The information was included in Thursday’s print and e-editions, till it was eliminated Tuesday. Hughes known as the AI-generated content material “a violation of our personal inner insurance policies and a critical breach.” The Solar-Instances stated a lot the identical.
For these craving a human-generated summer season studying record, The Atlantic not too long ago printed its 2025 roundup.
Pretend Philly Tv
Amy Poehler revealed a trailer this week on her podcast “Good Dangle” for a TV present known as “Philly Justice,” that includes herself and different “Parks and Recreation” alumni.
Sadly, “Philly Justice” isn’t truly about to be our latest watch repping the Metropolis of Brotherly Love, à la “Abbott Elementary” or “It’s All the time Sunny.” The present’s a faux, and the trailer was created 13 years in the past, as an inside joke between “Parks and Rec” solid members.
Poehler invited present creator Mike Schur and producer Morgan Sackett, in addition to actors Adam Scott and Rashida Jones, to speak in regards to the venture on her podcast.
The thought started after Poehler, Hahn, Scott, Jones and Paul Rudd appeared collectively in a photograph carrying their “Parks and Rec” office apparel with their arms crossed, trying sternly on the digicam.
Jones joked that it regarded like they had been filming a authorized procedural. From there, issues escalated.
“We had been speaking about how this image on set then grew to become a non-public joke that then grew to become a present that then was written by the writers, whereas we had been doing an actual present,” Poehler stated on the episode.
Ultimately, solid members took outing of their busy schedules to get collectively and really movie scenes for “Philly Justice.”
Sackett, the producer, even despatched out an electronic mail with a taking pictures schedule and plan for the present’s pilot, which he learn out loud for the podcast.
“We’re planning on changing the Barkley Group set into the workplace of the Philly Justice group. We’re additionally going to arrange a courtroom scene,” Sackett stated. “The plan is to decorate and groom everybody as 2002 legal professionals.”
The solid even created detailed character backstories.
“I used to be taking part in Joey Martinez who was a first-year affiliate,” Jones defined. “She had a extremely tough background … She doesn’t like to speak, however she’s the one that provides it to you straight, even if you don’t ask her opinion.”
Scott’s character was much more on the market: a leather-jacket-wearing district legal professional who was the one individual from his former agency to outlive 9/11.
“I simply keep in mind being so excited that we had been going to get to do it,” Scott stated. “As a result of we had been speaking at that time for perhaps like six months or one thing.”
Rudd doesn’t seem within the last reduce. The solid jokes that they changed him with the actor Dylan McDermott, who’s certainly within the trailer.
On the finish of the podcast episode, Poehler lastly performs the faux trailer, which includes intense courtroom hijinks, a number of shock witnesses and a passionate kiss.
“For the primary time ever on DVD, a legendary courtroom drama that nobody has ever seen,” a trailer narrator says. “These legal professionals play by their very own guidelines, and so they play for retains.”
The “Philly Justice” trailer is accessible on Youtube and Spotify. It begins at about an hour and eight minutes into the “Good Dangle” podcast.
Now, again to “actual” information.