The Australian man who went public defending his supposedly Vietnamese name, Phuc Dat Bich, has revealed it was a hoax.

In a post on his Facebook page the man, who now identifies only as 'Joe Carr', states that this Vietnamese gag name had started out as a joke.

SBS News has been unable to verify if 'Joe Carr' is his real name.

His post comes hours after SBS News contacted him with concerns about the veracity of his name..............

..."What started as a joke between friends, became a prank that made a fool out of the media and brought out the best in the people who reached out to me," he wrote.

"It didn't bring out the anger and darkness that we often see on the internet, but it brought a levity and humanity in a time we need it most.

"Out of this ordeal I've concluded not to trust the credibility of the media, it's twisted by the hungry journalists who mask the truth.

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/11/25/phuc-dat-bich-reveals-name-hoax

In a race to "get the News out  there" and TV stations asking "do you know more?"  the media is being caught in some untruths.  Investigative journalism appears after some rumours are aired as events as is the case with SBS.   

And there's not much of a deterrent when proven to be false.  Maybe days later, a "correction....apology" in very fine print appears somewhere within an edition.

DEB