Pele is dead. At least one were to trust CNN, which many people understandably might given its (rapidly diminishing) reputation as a real news organization. Fortunately for Pele, and unfortunately for CNN’s future, he is alive and well. The 74-year-old soccer legend is doing just fine despite a death hoax that gained steam on Friday and apparently duped the CNN show New Day . And as a result, the network erroneously tweeted that Pele died (see below): A rep for Pele quickly shot down this “breaking” story and confirmed he’s A-O-K. A rep for CNN confirmed the network is going off the air in May. Just kidding! Death hoaxes and false death rumors have always been around, but they’ve become 100 times common in the age of social media and declining journalism. Just ask Pawn Stars’ Chumlee or Wayne Knight in the past month alone. Check out our gallery of stars the Internet has fake-killed below: Celebrity Death Hoaxes: Stars the Internet Fake-Killed Open Slideshow 1. Lil Wayne Lil Wayne has been the subject of more than one death hoax over the years … and more than one actual near-death experience. So it’s believalble. View As List 1. Lil Wayne Lil Wayne has been the subject of more than one death hoax over the years … and more than one actual near-death experience. So it’s believalble. 2. Sharkeisha Sharkeisha was killed off by an Internet hoax, not long after she nearly killed a classmate with this insane sucker punch. 3. Wayne Knight Wayne Knight is alive and well. 4. Chumlee Pawn Stars’ Chumlee is not dead, despite a hoax indicating as much. 5. Celine Dion Celine Dion was fake-killed on Facebook pretty recently. 6. Chloe Moretz Chloe Moretz was far from pleased about the hoax that killed her online. 7. Bindi Irwin Bindi Irwin is alive, well and all grown up! 8. Jon Bon Jovi Jon Bon Jovi is still healthy and rocking out hard … thank goodness! 9. Cher Cher may be getting up there in years, but she’s in good health. 10. Vanilla Ice Vanilla Ice is the perfect candidate for such a hoax, but he’s actually in a pretty good place lately. 11. Eddie Murphy Stop trying to kill Eddie Murphy online, people. 12. Kanye West Rumors of Kanye West’s demise are about as real as Kim Kardashian’s face (not very). 13. Tiger Woods Tiger Woods killed his career for a time in 2009, but rest assured, he is physically alive. 14. Spencer Pratt Some of you may be strangely let down by the fact that Spencer Pratt death rumors were fake. 15. Sinbad Sinbad was done in by his own Wikipedia page. 16. Jeff Goldblum The Jeff Goldblum death hoax was one of the most notorious. 17. Justin Bieber In March 2012, “RIP Justin Bieber” really pissed off the legions of Beliebers who enjoy being overly aggressive and emotional about their douchebag hero in 140 characters or less. 18. Paris Hilton Paris Hilton fell victim to a fictional car crash in September 2012 … and in 2007, was allegedly shanked to death in jail. 19. Taylor Lautner The rumor mill got creative for the death of Taylor Lauther in 2010. When his death started trending on Twitter, the story was that Lautner had been “drugged by strippers.” 20. Eminem Reports of Eminem’s death have been greatly exaggerated. 21. Pele The Pele death hoax even duped CNN.
Originally posted here:
Pele Dead? CNN Tweets Soccer Legend’s Demise; Rep Shoots Down Hoax
