When I posted the story by Melanie Morgan last night I was pretty sure it was a foolish hoax by Code Pink.

In fact, I saw it as a desperate measure to  recapture some attention and publicity by pranking the media with a report that the Marines were voiding their lease and moving.

They even went as far as to invoke the name of the landlord in hoax.

Well, hoax is was, and the backlash has begun.

The San Jose Mercury:

Berkeley debate: Do CodePink’s hoaxes help or hurt its anti-war effort?

Should CodePink be turning red?

Some in Berkeley think so after the group’s bogus announcement Tuesday anti-war group that the embattled U.S. Marine Corps recruiting center was caving to the pressure of weekly protests and leaving town.

“If you want to be taken seriously as an organization of serious protest, then you don’t play jokes - even on April Fools’ Day,” said Robin Lakoff, a professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, who has written about the politics of language.

CodePink and other anti-war groups have been protesting the U.S. Marine recruiting center in downtown Berkeley for months, hoping to force the recruiters to leave town.

A CodePink official defended the hoax Tuesday.

“In CodePink we tend to have a sense of humor,” said CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin. “We tend to joke about a lot of things. It keeps us going where other anti-war groups have gone by the wayside.”

Naw, don’t even go there.  Here are the false quotes:

The release said Sasha Shamszad, the owner and landlord of the Marine recruiting center, “has reached an amicable agreement with the Marines to redeploy from Berkeley” and that further details would be given at noon news conference Tuesday.

The release included false quotes attributed to Shamszad.

“The situation was becoming untenable,” the false quote said. “The presence of the Marines sparking daily protests have had a negative impact on local businesses. The city has been forced to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in police overtime. And some groups have been calling for a national boycott of our city. So I sat down with representatives of the Marines and we worked out a solution.”

Reached by telephone Tuesday, Shamszad said, “Someone is in la la land here. There’s a lease involved here. We live in a society where contracts are a big deal. These people are my tenants and I’m a professional. Once they have a lease, unless they break the rules, you can’t get them out.

Exactly.  Even Mayor Bates is not buying this, though quite frankly, this could be lip service:

Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates said the publicity stunt had people calling his office and others in the city. Although Bates initially supported giving CodePink a permit fee waiver and a free parking space at the Marine center for their weekly protests, he criticized their prank.

“I think they have hurt their credibility with this farce,” he said.

Wait…they had credibility?  Seriously?

In October, CodePink distributed a phony news release saying Blackwater USA, a private military contractor, was creating a new “Department of Corporate Integrity” that would put the mercy back in mercenary, according to published reports.

CBS News, the Associated Press and other news organizations ran with the story, according to published reports about the hoax.

Also Tuesday, CodePink distributed an invented letter from John Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, that said he had decided to start impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. The letter ended with “April Fools!”

At least one Bay Area television station - KTVU Channel 2 - ran a short segment about the Berkeley Marine center’s false departure on the 6 p.m. news Monday. KTVU reported that the building at 64 Shattuck Square was up for rent. By the 10 p.m. newscast, the Oakland-based TV station warned of the “hoax” by CodePink.

Despite criticism early Tuesday, CodePink went ahead with a “mock” news conference at noon Tuesday where a “pink Marine” announced the Marines were moving out.

Well, they did nothing to their opposition except make them more resolved to stay.

At least one punked news site still has the story live.

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