Sensationalism, fake news, and fact-murky stories are a cultural norm in today’s digital landscape. Internet hackers, Tinder swindlers, and telephone scammers are rife, and who hasn’t been guilty of a Photoshop tweak here or a pretty filter there to portray a more flattering version of the truth? Deception is pervasive, and many media outlets are incentivized to craft clickbait stories in the relentless pursuit of views, clicks, downloads, subscriptions, and ultimately, ad revenue. In contrast, the pre-digital era carried an expectation—if not a sacred trust—that media sources would deliver the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. But even in those times, cracks occasionally surfaced, and one such crack became a global earthquake.
What started as a groundbreaking scoop for a German current affairs magazine turned into one of the world’s most infamous journalistic scandals: The Hitler Diaries Hoax. We investigate the how, the why, and the who of this extraordinary con. Click through the gallery to uncover the truth behind one of history’s greatest media deceptions.