The newspaper tweeted out that Pulitzer Prize-winning author Cormac McCarthy*had died, only to quickly learn that it had been fooled by a fake Twitter account.*
Celeb death hoaxes aren't terribly new in the social media age, but it's rare that they're perpetuated by a major news outlet.*
The hoax seems to have originated from a fake Twitter account using the name and logo of the Alfred A. K**pf publishing house, which counts McCarthy among its authors.
USA Today*ran with the news, then quickly followed up with a**ther tweet that its reporters "are looking into this report to verify its authenticity." Read more...