It pays to be careful, when you are a member of the media, writing about someone who has spent a lifetime pulling hoaxes on that very group.
Especially when said hoaxer has relied on the media's gullibility and laziness to pull said hoaxes.
I spent 30 seconds checking on Google, so I'm pretty sure Alan Abel does exist, has pulled some beauties, and that Abel Raises Cain (Documentary Channel, Saturday, November 13, 9.30pm) is not itself a hoax.
Abel's lifetime of pranks has been brought together lovingly, it must be said, in this documentary by his daughter, Jenny Abel, in association with the BBC.
And Abel Raises Cain is a must-watch.
The hoaxes are not just for the sheer joy of fooling people, but provide a fascinating commentary on the madness that is the United States.
It is surely only in that country anyone would believe them.
They started in 1959, when Abel managed to get on the Today Show with the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals (Sina).
Abel managed to fool the media into believing Sina was on a mission to clothe naked animals throughout the world, and hired actor Buck Henry to play G. Clifford Prout, the "president" of the society.
Sina was best known for its tagline - "A nude horse is a rude horse" - and what was a satire of media censorship took on a life of its own, with sympathisers offering unsolicited contributions.
It took five years before Time magazine outed the man behind the prank.
Another classic was Citizens Against Breastfeeding, a group introduced at the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia.
Abel introduced a campaign to ban all breastfeeding because "it is an incestuous relationship between mother and baby that manifests an oral addiction leading youngsters to smoke, drink and even becoming a homosexual".
The coverage of the reactions to Citizens Against Breastfeeding outside the convention are fabulous.
The group did 200 interviews over two years, before Abel confessed the hoax.
While being a prankster may be a great career choice for keeping people occupied with tales of your amazing japes at cocktail parties, it does not necessarily pay the bills.
We discover early on Alan lives with his wife in the basement of their next-door neighbours' home after having to sell their own.
If there is one criticism of the documentary, it is that the psychology behind Abel's strange career is not fully made clear.
But, as Jenny Abel says: "Few people understand my father's true motives."
"He found out he could do anything outrageous as long as he said it with a straight face."
