Media Outlets Admit They Were Hoaxed on 'Ryan Seacrest' Incident

By: E&P Staff It seemed improbable anyway--Ryan Seacrest, "American Idol" TV host, visiting a local New Jesey radio station to promote the show--but it got loonier. On Wednesday, asked on the air by the co-hosts if he was gay, Seacrest allegedly stormed out of the studio.

This didn't stop many media outlets from reporting it as fact. As Carl Barbati, the editor of the local Jersey newspaper, The Trentonian, put it today, "We were scammed." But they weren't alone.

Dan Gross, columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News, has posted this on the paper's Web site: "I would like to apologize to Ryan Seacrest and to Daily News readers for an incorrect report in his Thursday column." He said it wasn't Seacrest who stormed out of an interview with New Jersey 101.5 Wednesday afternoon. "It was an imposter. ...The radio hosts yesterday acknowledged the prank, which was covered on the front page of the Trentonian, and also led to a flood of media calls to New Jersey 101.5 yesterday."

He quoted Craig Carton, one of the hosts, saying: ?It?s nice to know a radio station can still pull off a stunt like this?We can take anyone down?it?s within our power. The Washington Post wanted to do a front-page story for tomorrow. That?s the power the Jersey Guys have."

The incident was also reported on the popular blog Gawker, which today also fessed up, thusly:

"You know how it didn?t really make sense that Ryan Seacrest would be doing a live, in-studio radio interview in New Jersey? And how it didn?t really make sense why, after the first time he walked out of the studio because the DJ asked about his sexuality, he would have agreed to continue the interview? Yeah, well, it now makes sense that it didn?t make sense. Because it turns out it didn?t actually happen."