Fake news: Zubin Mehta is alive and well
NewsLaphilnews, an X-Twitter account that appeared on first sight to be linked to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, tweeted the sudden death of Zubin Mehta, an hour ago. It became clear soon after that the X account is a fake entity.
We heard from the Israel Philharmonic that they woke Zubin up with a phone call and he’s definitely alive and well.
The message has been conveyed to Israel Phil players: חברים יקרים, יש שמועות כל כך שזובין נפטר. זה רץ באינטרנט. זה לא נכון. לפני 10 דקות התקשרנו אליו. הערנו אותו והוא צחק על כל העניין
He seemed to find the hoax report quite amusing.
We apologise for any misapprehension.
The message below is from the original series of fake tweets:
Today at 9am (local time) Gustavo Dudamel will release an official Press Announcement on the sudden death of Conductor emeritus Zubin Mehta.
— LA phil news (@LAphilNews) October 23, 2023
Look at the time stamp, in no universe is it currently 2:58 PM on Oct. 23, in Los Angeles, and where it will then go back in time and release an official announcement at 9 AM “today”.
When Norman posted the news, quoting the tweet, it was just around 6:30am in LA.
The timestamp on tweets does not indicate when the poster tweeted *in their timezone* but is rather linked to your own timezone – i.e., the tweet was posted at 2:58PM *your* local time (whatever time that was wherever the account owner was located).
I’m still dubious….!
So…. rumors of Zubin Mehta’s death have been greatly exaggerated, says Maestro Mehta himself!
The internet is full of false claims about celebrity death. Pity the poor devils who have to waste their lives making it all up.
Totgesagte leben länger! – Those who are said to be dead live longer!
One can only hope that it proves to be true in this particular case. It is unfortunate however that the headline here calls reports of ZM’s being alive and well “fake news” rather than making clear that exactly the opposite is true.