New York Observer: "EXCLUSIVE: New York Mag’s Boy Genius Investor Made It All Up"

[JHB]

It’s been a tough month for fact-checking. After the Rolling Stone campus rape story unraveled, readers of all publications can be forgiven for questioning the process by which Americans get our news. And now it turns out that another blockbuster story is—to quote its subject in an exclusive Observer interview—”not true.”

Monday’s edition of New York magazine includes an irresistible story about a Stuyvesant High senior named Mohammed Islam who had made a fortune investing in the stock market. Reporter Jessica Pressler wrote regarding the precise number, “Though he is shy about the $72 million number, he confirmed his net worth is in the ‘high eight figures.’ ” The New York Post followed up with a story of its own, with the fat figure playing a key role in the headline: “High school student scores $72M playing the stock market.”

And now it turns out, the real number is … zero.

In an exclusive interview with Mr. Islam and his friend Damir Tulemaganbetov, who also featured heavily in the New York story, the baby-faced boys who dress in suits with tie clips came clean. Swept up in a tide of media adulation, they made the whole thing up.

Read more at http://observer.com/2014/12/exclusive-new-york-mags-boy-genius-investor-made-it-all-up/#ixzz3M6E5xQWm

My hinkey-dar is vindicated.

[yeoman6987]

1. Journalism is dying and they are desperate

However making up rapes and a new millionaire is really quite galling. This will just continue the perseption that all they do is lie. I doubt they will learn their lessons.

[Enrique]

2. i feel sorry for them

I got into trouble when I was in H.S. but it was never so bad that I had to hire a PR firm.

[GeorgeGist]

3. The Little Oligarch ...

Who Couldn't.

[customerserviceguy]

4. Maybe the boys have a future in fiction writing. n/t

[Major Hogwash]

5. This "high school boy gets rich by playing stock market" story has been foisted on us many times.

But, it is usually quickly debunked in most cases.

Then there are real stories, like the one about the jackass who started Facebook . . and they seem to make these kinds of stories about high school boys getting rich easier for some people to believe.
That's why these kinds of stories have popped up so frequently these last few years.

[surrealAmerican]

6. It should not be that easy for some high-school kid to scam the media.

It's almost as if they set themselves up for scammers.

I guess the negative consequences for publishing lies are less than the cost of actually checking your facts before publishing a story.