Cormac McCarthy is not dead, but anyone who’s been online in the past day or happened to follow the USA Today ‘s Twitter feed might have believed that the legendary American author had passed away.
The Pulitzer Award winner was the victim of a death hoax that originated from an unverified Twitter account, claiming that the 82-year-old author had died of a stroke. This is the kind of death hoax that’s not entirely uncommon, and normally they make some rounds on the internet before fizzling away.
But that wasn’t the case this time. The original report of McCarthy’s death was actually picked up by USA Today , which tweeted about the author’s alleged death and even put the news on a banner on its website. It exploded from there, leading other sites to pick up the news and many people to share it on social media.
As Yahoo News noted, this led McCarthy’s publisher to try squashing the rumor, but by then it was going viral and there was no stopping the story.
“The author’s publisher, Penguin Random House, said on its official Twitter account that a fake publishing account had spread the news.”
“Shortly after the hoax surfaced, Cormac McCarthy’s name began trending in the United States on Twitter.”
“A Gannett rep didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.”
Cormac McCarthy now joins a growing legion of celebrities to fall victim to a viral death hoax. In the past five years or so, it’s become something of a sport for people on the internet to invent stories about actors and athletes passing away, sometimes in fantastic and unbelievable circumstances.
Some of these originate from websites intending to draw clicks by spreading false stories, while others are from sites that allow users to create and post their own news stories. Not every one goes viral, but often they catch on through Facebook and Twitter, leading many people to leave condolences.
There have been celebrities who are repeat victims of death hoaxes, including Will Smith and Macaulay Culkin, both of whom have met their demise online at least twice.
Another recent celebrity to be hit was Adam Sandler. Last year, fake reports circulated that he had been found dead in his home. The identical report went viral again last month, originating from a site called Linkbeef . The report appeared to conflate details about the suicide death of actor and comedian Robin Williams.
“Sandler had recently returned to a rehabilitation centre to ‘fine-tune’ his sobriety, the Los Angeles Times reported in July.”
“The local Sheriff’s office said Sandler was found unconscious and not breathing at his home near Tiburon, north of San Francisco.”
“‘At this time, the Sheriff’s Office Coroner Division suspects the death to be a suicide due to asphyxia, but a comprehensive investigation must be completed before a final determination is made,’ police said in a statement.”
McCarthy is considered the greatest living American author and has written 10 novels, winning the Pulitzer Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction for his 2006 novel The Road . A number of his novels have been adapted into motion pictures, including the 2007 Academy Award winner for Best Picture, No Country for Old Men .
This brilliantly unhangs the crêpe for Cormac McCarthy, not one bit dead. Article undertaken by @michaelschaub : https://t.co/MmJIlOq76t
— Phil Hanrahan (@hanrahanNY) June 28, 2016
Other novels have earned some top honors, including the 1985 novel Blood Meridian which was named to Time magazine’s list of 100 best English-language books published between 1923 and 2005.
The best possible response to the “Cormac McCarthy is dead” rumors. pic.twitter.com/vbMdqcdVo6
— Richard Kadrey (@Richard_Kadrey) June 28, 2016
Cormac McCarthy himself wasn’t too bothered by the death hoax, Penguin Random House noted. The publisher said in a tweet that, “Cormac McCarthy is alive and well and still doesn’t care about Twitter.”
[Photo by Mark Von Holden/Getty Images]
