A Pittsburgh television station is apologizing today after falling for a phony story about the Steelers’ all-time leading receiver, Hines Ward, signing with the Baltimore Ravens.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that on the 6 o’clock news Wednesday morning, WPXI-TV reported that Ward would be resuming his NFL career with the rival Ravens.
One problem: WPXI got that report from a site called BroCouncil.com, which isn’t known for breaking NFL news. The “report” was an obvious spoof that included clearly fake quotes.
On its Twitter page, WPXI has since apologized.
“We got spoofed! We mentioned on the air this morning a bogus report that Hines Ward wigned [sic] with the Ravens,” the station’s tweet said. “We apolgize [sic] for our mistake.”