We are very ashamed (in fact not)

Our dear and beloved readers!

On June 1,an interview with Tommaso Debenedetti, known to the Italian pranker, again entered the arena of public attention in May 2017, was published on Colta.ru.

False Bleading Master, a premature sorrows specialist who “buried” Yoko at different times (on behalf of Camilla Poli) and Bashar al -Assad (on behalf of Vladimir Kolokoltsev) , checking the strength of the media and finding solid holes in the system of their fact, on May 17, he only brought an account on the face of only the Minister of Culture of France, who had taken over the post Francoise Nissen, and on May 18 , informed the world about the sudden “death” of the Nobel laureate Svetlana Aleksievich.

Within an hour, the news of Verno scattered at dozens of large media, including the main players of the Russian media market. By the end of this hour, the newsletters of different publications had to invent an apology, change the headlines, demolish materials, receive a head -mockery in the offices of the authorities, call Aleksievich to South Korea and nervously smoke at the entrances to publishing houses.

Behind all this short but intense buch stood a quiet Italian teacher, a man with one photo over many years (the media endlessly reproduce it). In the photograph, which was then published, and we, skeptically pursing his lips, crossing his hands on his chest of middle-aged in a white shirt, with his hair combed back and some bitter dream in the eyes stands against the backdrop of the Roman hotel "Bernini".

The impressed editorial office of Kolta decided to talk with Mr. Debenedetti about his education system, about the fake interviews that he once took from Gorbachev and the Dalai Lama, we wanted the truth about himself. We wrote Debedetti on Twitter, then repeated the request again, adding exclamation signs and epithets, but he ignored us.

Then we had the idea to answer him with his own methods, and we took up work.

Yes, dear readers, an interview with Tommaso Debenedetti was invented from beginning to end, from the first to the last letter by journalist Denis Kurenov . You, of course, remember the Lumier's "watered wateringman." This wateringman was supposed to be politically!

But we were wondering if our readers would open this deception. We gave a term of two weeks and hid a direct unraveling in the text. Two hours before the publication, we opened once again on Twitter an account on behalf of the innocent Francoise Nissen (with the same U RL ) and gave a link to the message about Aleksievich, right in the aquisy to the text. If one of you went into the root of the account with one click, we would take off with our deception even faster than Debedetti. There lies the only message : "Interview with Tommaso Debenedetti on Colta.ru is a mystification." But no one overcame this quest in one move. Of course, we are slightly disappointed.

Surprisingly, exactly on the day of publication, our permanent author Alexander Morozov informed 20,000 of his subscribers that Svetlana Aleksievich herself appeared on Facebook . For example, famous journalists Ilya Azar and Renat Davletgildeev were added to friends to Aleksievich. At the moment, the "Account Aleksievich" is not available.

And yet why, why did we do this, why did we decide to sacrifice our many years of reputation?

Firstly, for us it was a kind of repentance. Because some impatient members of the editorial office with the Clickbait virus almost insisted on the publication of news about Aleksievich. And how many times before that the editors sent the events of three years ago to our news department? So Debedetti’s trick almost touched us. We decided to create this “interview” as a monument and warning to ourselves - for the future.

Secondly, we read the conversations that Debedetti led with The New Yorker or The Guardian , and it seemed to us that the maestro was inattentively and not about that. We saw a hero who simply did not have enough time for colleagues, and we decided to help him be born in a more perfect form.

After waiting for a week and looking through all our eyes in anticipation of when you reveal us, we wrote once again Signor Debenetti - this time already with reference to an interview that he did not give.

To our pleasure and surprise, this time Tommaso answered us! He perfectly owns the means of electronic translation, he got acquainted with his maxims - and completely approved them! He sent us, already according to Imila, even exclusively a flattering review. We give him completely: “An interview with me, published on Colta.ru, was brilliant. Yes, this is a fake, but this fake is more real, interesting and resourceful than any real interview. The magnificent work of Denis Kurenov proves that sometimes with the help of mystification you can create a much more convincing portrait of the interlocutor than during a real conversation. This is not only an example of journalism, but also a model of literature in our era of post -truths. ”

Thank you, Signor Debenetti, praise from you is what we call recognition!

But this is not enough. It turns out that on June 9, in the conversation of another of our author Stanislav Belkovsky with Svetlana Aleksievich, on the Rain TV channel, the conversation came about the recent trick of Debenedetti. The writer reacted strictly to her, called the "form of terrorism" and ended the verdict: "We are in the hands of crazy loners."

Debenedetti learned about how Aleksievich certified him, and asked us, the colt, to become the ruber of their dialogue, namely, to publish his answer to the Nobel laureate. Perhaps for the first time in the history of the “killer” is explained with its “victim”, and the pranker with the object of the prank. Of course, we could not miss such an opportunity - and with pleasure we provide on our pages the tribune Tommaso Debenedetti. Repeated!

On this, we, shamed, bow. We promise to continue to behave honestly with you. (Well, or let's see.)

Tummazo Debenedetti's appeal to Svetlana Aleksievich

Of course, you will not appreciate my letter. After all, I am your virtual killer. On May 18, when you were at a conference in Seoul, I was in Rome, and during the change (I am a school teacher of Italian language and literature), I “killed” you on Twitter. The day before, I created an account on behalf of Francoise Nissen, Minister of Culture of France, which is your publisher.

And so, being in the school office, I took my phone and published a message about your imaginary death. In French and English. Then I turned off the phone and began to lead the lesson. At the end of the lesson, I looked into the phone and saw that they wrote about your death on the main page of Le Figaro . This news was also distributed by the Spanish, Portuguese and Russian media. I immediately wrote on Twitter that the account is fake and that I am the author of this hoax. And for me it was a big surprise to hear your refutation of my own death.

But last Friday I was very, very surprised when I found out that in an interview with the Russian television channel you talked about my hoax and called it the “form of terrorism”. I understand that you are annoyed, dear Svetlana, but I fundamentally disagree with your comment.

I make my hoaxes to highlight the inertia of the media. I want to show how easy it is in our Internet to give yourself to social media for anyone-for ministers, leaders, famous writers. And how simply with the help of these avatars you can create fake news. And this is not terrorism. I think that this is only a way to show the state of today's press and call on journalists to check the news before the publication. In your opinion, is this a form of terrorism?

I repeat, Svetlana - you were in Seoul, I was in Rome, and the Parisian and Moscow famous media talked about your death, which I wrote about from the phone during a school change. This is the state of modern media: in a crazy race for the championship of publication, journalists write the news without bothering themselves with verification. They see the name of the new minister on Twitter and immediately will folly this account. And when an important message appears in such an account, especially if this message about someone else's death, then journalists immediately pick it up and publish the news.

Incredible, but this is not the end. After all, you are not my only “victim”. Since 2011, I managed to “bury” Gorbachev, Pope, Castro, as well as writers such as Kormak McCarthy, Don Delillo, Joan Rowling, Mario Vargas Less, and many others. Incredibly, the media continue to make the same mistake over and over again. I repeat: this is not terrorism, it is a completely opposite thing for him. I think that the real danger is not contained in my draws, but in the situation in which the modern press was. Even the well -known and authoritative media of Western Europe and the USA are available for this kind of attacks. They strive to publish news as quickly as possible and because of this they can easily become a victim of such hoaxes.

The danger is that not only me, but also real terrorist organizations, real criminals can take advantage of this situation for their own purposes. They can make a mess and create problems. With my mystification, I only warn about the possibility of all this. Here is the real reason I create fake news.

I am sure that you will not agree with my letter, but at the same time I am sure that you will understand me. We live in the era of post -truths, which is fraught with both many opportunities and many dangers for journalism. You, as an outstanding author of magnificent essays and reports that I have read and deeply appreciate for more than a dozen years, you will probably understand me. And I will be very happy, Svetlana, to find out your opinion about the state of the media in the post -truth era, about the fake news epidemic and the danger of this situation. I will be happy to get acquainted with your ideas.

And now is the time to tell you sincerely: forgive me.