The Times of London found itself in an awkward journalistic situation when it printed an article featuring fictitious quotes by former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. Time Times of London explained the error as follows, according to the New York Post:

The Times has apologized to Bill de Blasio and removed the article immediately after discovering that our reporter had been misled by an individual falsely claiming to be the former New York mayor.

I had two thoughts worth sharing about this absurd story.

1. Why is The Times of London conducting interviews with a former Mayor of New York City? London is a long way away from New York City. I have seen little evidence that a significant number of people in New York City care much about what Mr. de Blasio thinks these days. I cannot imagine that the largely international readership of ToL is more interested in his insights. A non-insignificant number of supporters of his preferred candidate for Mayor may not even remember who he is, notwithstanding the fact that he left office in January 2022. Lest anyone doubt be, remember I have lived through hearing a classmate confuse the 2005 New York City Mayoral Election with a Presidential race.
2. This story presents a cautionary tale. One reason The Times of London was so easily duped by an imposter (assuming they are telling the truth and did not interview ChatGPT) may well be because they lack the sorts of ties that would be helpful in reporting on U.S. municipal politics. I am often less than impressed with foreign media assessments of U.S. politics and I have no doubt that foreigners would find much to be nonplussed by in U.S. coverage of their local political affairs.

But in the end the solution was simple in this case: Ask whether you need to conduct this particular “interview” at all.