Teenagers betting on being saluted as super trolls?

I was thinking: What kind of teenager would talk of a second shooter during the Florida school shooting, if there was none? (see videos here and there), and I couldn't find an answer until this morning.

Now, the way that I as a renowned journalist would handle such reports is to introduce the witnesses by stating their full name and while bidding them farewell to promise them to stay in touch.

And if their stories turned out to be phoney, I would reservedly request an explanation.

That is however not what happened here. Instead the journalist in the first video reacts by essentially asking the girl Kid, you know what you're saying?, in a tone that can't quite decide whether that should be a warning or a threat, and the journalist in the second video reacts by essentially telling the girl Alright, you got your bullshit across, now piss off!, chiding her for her lack of ostentatious traumatisation.

Teenagers tend to be very good at predicting the actions of adults.

It is not only conceivable, it is actually likely that the two girls, who were interviewed, anticipated the reaction they would cause.

So then, on the basis of assured improper conduct of journalists, making phoney claims may actually be a game of finding the idiot who runs the story.

If that was so, I'd consider it remarkable just how ingrained lying is in American culture and at the same time I'd consider it remarkable just how blind Americans are towards the obvious systemic consequences of their weakness for dishonesty: While one may find many pleasures in fooling others or being the only one who isn't fooled by someone else, that kind of lust driven behaviour means that in an uneven battle the ones who hold the better cards will always win, because an upset victory of truth can never be trusted.

You know, it reminds me of the scene in The BFG when the Queen says We have verifiable intelligence. I laughed out loud at that. After all, when the Queen says it... but will Americans ever have? It might be argued that the kingdom of the beast is full of darkness for some time already.