Well, this is embarrassing. CNN — which is already losing droves of viewers to the conservative FOX News Channel — is in even deeper dog doo after officials at the Coney Island History Project pulled a fast one on the cable network. “Archaeologists” for the group claimed to have found an ancient hot dog encased in ice beneath a restaurant on Brooklyn’s Coney Island. The History Project even put the “ancient” frankfurter on display, claiming it was unearthed during the demolition of the historic Feltman’s Kitchen, home of the world’s first hot dog.
Turns out it was all just one big publicity stunt that even Brooklyn’s own News 12 got suckered into. Did anyone think to ask how a chunk of ice would have stayed frozen for more than century when daily temperatures in New York City regularly top 90 degrees between June and September?
“The recent discovery by an amateur archaeologist of the ‘140 Year Old Feltman’s Hot Dog’ encased in ice along with a bun, [and] an original receipt from Feltman’s, … was a publicity stunt in the grand tradition of Coney Island ballyhoo,” said Tricia Vita, spokeswoman for The History Project. “I was surprised in the beginning at how many people believed it was true,” she said. “But after reading all the buzz about it on Twitter and the Internet, I’m not really that surprised because people want to believe these types of things are true.“
CNN has since removed the report from its website.