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Celebrity Sperm Auction Attention ladies: Interested in "certified and authenticated rock star sperm"? Posing as Giuseppe Scagolli in 1976, Skaggs appealed to women who wanted children with sperm provided by the likes of Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix. Several wire services and Ms. magazine picked up the story of a sperm bank robbery.

The point is rather apparent. We ask so much from the news organizations we trust. If a poor artist with few resources can fool the media into believing outrageous lies, what hope do we have against a well-funded, malicious liar?

In a time of heightened fears of terrorism, Skaggs thinks it's even more important to examine the media and its vulnerabilities. Still, he keeps in mind that people are in no mood for surprises. "Of course, I have to be more careful," he says.

Hoaxing surely isn't a traditional way to make a point. But it's as American as Ben Franklin, according to Alex Boese, author of The Museum of Hoaxes (Dutton).

In 1747, Polly Baker became a media sensation in Colonial America after she was hauled into a Connecticut court and punished for having out-of-wedlock sexual intercourse five times.

It was hard for Baker to argue otherwise. She had five children and was unmarried.

Twice the courts fined Baker. Twice she was subject to corporal punishment for her promiscuity.

At her fifth trial, she made an impassioned plea to the court that turned her into one of America's first feminist heroes. She argued that she supported all her children on her own. Worst of all, the father of these children had never been punished, while she became a convicted criminal.

Far from a whipping, Baker told the judges that they should erect a statue in her honor. The next day, one of her judges proposed to her, and she lived happily ever after.

Too bad this feel-good story was purely the invention of Franklin, who confessed late in life that he fabricated the story. "I think you can tell where Franklin stood on this issue, and that he saw hoaxing as a way to prove a point," Boise says.