How do we know the above comment isn't an April Fool's joke?

Easy: my mother drilled it into me for years that a prank played after 12 noon on April 1st made you the fool, I've abided by that rule of the game for 35 years, I'm not about to start breaking it now.

Does the reporter still have the copy?

I didn't ask. I just explained I was following up on some footage of a news report by them that I suspected might be computer generated, and I wanted to verify the legitimacy of the video and event.

But can you believe them on April 1st?

Well, you can't believe them even if it's not. People tend to remember things that never happened.

Other than that, GP may have just been teasing. I mean what's the probability that you call them and they still have the same people there after 25 years? You call them and one of those rare guys (who's still there after 25 years) answers the phone. Or whoever answers the phone is willing to take the time to find someone who has been there since then. Seems unlikely.

I wasn't teasing, I actually called them. I was curious if it was a deepfake ML video so I wanted to find out. I got passed around quite a bit till I spoke with a guy in news room archives who had been there "a long time and would know", that's why I specifically got passed to him I believe.

Sure, but you could be lying or they could be lying.

You could append this to any statement though.

Let's never believe anything at all.

Cool! Thanks for the additional details.

I as well thought you were just joking but that’s great!

> People tend to remember things that never happened.

While I don't intend/want to derail the focus here, this happens to make for an excellent coincidental articulation of one of the key things conspiracy theorists seem to not be able to comprehend in their mental models of the world.

Dude, it's (at least) April 2nd all around the globe right now...