“On April Fools’ Day, journalists from every media take advantage of the occasion to pass off fabricated stories as news. While entertaining, these media hoaxes flout journalistic ethics and disappoint the public’s expectation that the media are reliable arbiters of truth. This play arises from and dramatises the incongruities of the journalistic obligation to entertain as well as inform. Further, hoaxes uncover the media’s role in the social construction of reality. They challenge commonsense epistemology by proving that fiction can be indistinguishable from fact, even when it is news.”
–Moira Smith. Abstract of “Arbiters of Truth at Play: Media April Fools’ Day Hoaxes.” Folklore 120.3 (2009): 274-290. Quote on page 274. Web.