Dating a Banker Anonymous a Satirical Hoax, Times Admits

Eric Strauss

Remember how last month we all had fun hating that "support group" Dating a Banker Anonymous [DABA], created by and for materialistic ladies freaking out about their suddenly penurious boyfriends? And then, after a NY Times article about the women led to an immediate book deal for the DABA co-founders—swiftly followed by talk of a movie and TV deal—we all gagged on our own bile? Well, as previously suspected, the whole thing was just a satirical put-on—there never was any support group, just a blog—and the Paper of Record has just issued a mea culpa, almost four weeks after the article was originally published:

An article on Jan. 28 about women who commiserated over dating Wall Street bankers caught in the financial crisis described a group they had formed, Dating a Banker Anonymous, as a support group. That is the name of their blog. Its creators originally told The Times that about 30 women had participated, but since publication, they have said that all involved were friends. Laney Crowell, one of the women who started the blog, said in the article that it was “very tongue in cheek;” she has since described it as a satire that embellishes true experiences for effect. Had the nature of the blog been made clear at the outset, the article would have described it accordingly, not as a support group.

Not that it makes a difference to anyone rushing to cash in on the nation's lust for Schadenfreude; the DABA girls' new literary agent tells Newsweek, "It’s a humor book. That’s the category it would be." The continued interest is damn good news for Crowell; she was recently fired from her job at online fashion channel StyleCaster "because DABA-fever had become a distraction."

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By John Del Signore in Miscellaneous on February 25, 2009 10:32 AM

Comments [rss]

goverdhan

used the right please and i think so menage.

===============

Buy Ebook

matty

I'll take the one on the right please.

NannyState

I just feel...so used.

MaiaW

Gray Lady - 1 Readers - 0

brooklynbee

Well, I can attest that it's true if your blog gets mentioned in a NY Times article, people WILl come out of the woodwork to talk book deals. In my case, the book deal never came to fruition, oh well.

Rocknrope

What was it about?

verbal

Is anyone surprised that the "Cat Litter of Record" was duped again.

Joe Schumacher

The clueless Times makes two omissions in their apology. First, they don't admit that the reporters and editors who worked on the article appear to lack even the simplest critical thinking skills that would have led them to question the reality of DABA. Second, had they figured out the satirical nature of the DABA blog they never would have published the story because there wouldn't have been a story to publish.