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Former D.O.A. drummer Chuck Biscuits 'alive and well' despite Internet reports

By Nick Patch (CP) - 22 hours ago

TORONTO - The founder of Vancouver punk group D.O.A. says that his former drummer, Chuck Biscuits, is alive and well and Internet reports of his death are part of a "cruel hoax."

Joe Keithley told The Canadian Press on Friday that the drummer's brother contacted him and confirmed that Biscuits is indeed alive.

"He's well and alive, so that's good news," Keithley said on the line from his Vancouver office.

Several major news outlets in Canada, the United States and Britain reported Thursday that Biscuits had died of throat cancer.

The reports seem to have originated from a single blog post written by New York freelance writer James Greene Jr., who has since claimed that he was duped by an anonymous emailer.

"I'm sorry I unknowingly spread this horrible lie," Greene blogged Friday. "I apologize to the world, Chuck's family, Chuck's friends, and especially Chuck."

Biscuits was the original drummer for metal band Danzig, and also performed with L.A. hardcore innovators Black Flag and Social Distortion.

"(The) guy was an incredible talent, probably the best punk-rock drummer of all time," Keithley said.

Keithley heard the news of Biscuits' death on Thursday after getting some "weird emails." He took to Wikipedia and found that Biscuits was listed as having succumbed to throat cancer on Oct. 24.

There were memorial pages on Facebook and reports of Biscuits' death had spread instantaneously via Twitter and through blogs and some mainstream media outlets, all of which attributed the news to the original blog post.

Keithley thought it was weird no one had told him, so he phoned Biscuits' brother, Bob ("he got freaked out ... he was driving a bus, so I figured he might drive the bus off the road, because he's getting the news from me," Keithley said).

Biscuits' brother calmed down, called the drummer and drove to see him, said Keithley.

"You go on a rollercoaster of emotions," Keithley said. "Chuck and I aren't that close anymore, right, but we sure played some great music together."

In fact, Biscuits is only the latest in a wave of celebrities who have had to announce lately that they are still alive.

Twitter was abuzz a few weeks ago with rumours that Kanye West had died in a car crash ("R.I.P. Kanye West" remained a top trending topic for days). The report emanated from a fake Fox News mainpage design, generated by Internet pranksters.

The story was snapped up widely by blogs who did report that it was only a rumour, but furthered the speculation anyway.

And in June, Jeff Goldblum's personal publicist was forced to publicly dismiss Internet rumours that the 57-year-old actor plunged to his death on a movie shoot in New Zealand.

That story, too, circulated in blogs before being spread at supersonic speed via Twitter, which has become something of a misinformation superhighway.

Paul Knox, chair of the School of Journalism at Toronto's Ryerson University, points out that hoaxes have been around as long as journalism.

But Biscuits' story spread from blogs to major media outlets, which Knox says must do better.

"I think the lesson for serious news organizations here is: don't repost or republish unless you have verified and if you feel you have to do so because of competitive pressure, make sure you have some way of flagging the post or the information as unverified," he said in a telephone interview.

"Make sure that you distinguish and your hopefully trustworthy staff have been able to check it out, and that you're passing this on because you feel that its mere existence is newsworthy, but it's unverified."

Toronto rocker Kim Mitchell, meanwhile, experienced a situation similar to the Biscuits death hoax several years ago, when reports circulated in the blogosphere and on Facebook and MySpace that Pye Dubois, his longtime collaborator, had died.

At the time, Dubois and Mitchell weren't speaking to one another after having a falling out. Dubois had become reclusive, Mitchell said, and when friends couldn't reach him for days at a time, rumours began to spread that he had died.

When Mitchell heard the news, he was understandably upset.

"I felt horrible," Mitchell recalled in a telephone interview from Edmonton. "I panicked a bit. ... Because I thought: 'Holy crap, I wrote a ton of music with this guy, and he's holding a grudge against me to the point where (he won't) notify me that he's really ill."'

Fortunately, Mitchell still had channels of reaching Dubois and verified that he was OK.

"Funny how before something's checked it can explode into nonsense," he said. "In seconds, it's all over the planet."

Keithley agreed.

"It just shows you the power of the Internet," he said.

"You can say something that's completely untrue, and I mean, I was bombarded with emails and phone calls within about an hour. It was a real drag."

Copyright © 2009 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.