THE DAY MACAULAY CULKIN DIED AND RETURNED TO LIFE

Once again raising unsettling questions about the social media as a trusted source of news, Facebook and Twitter exploded with reaction on Friday to a Facebook memorial page to Home Alone actor Macaulay Culkin, who, it said, had passed away on Thursday. "He will be missed but not forgotten. Please show your sympathy and condolences by commenting on and liking this page." Within hours, hundreds of thousands of social network users had spread the word of Culkin’s death, and a fake MSNBC screen shot, in which "multiple unconfirmed reports" were quoted as saying that Culkin’s body had been found in his Manhattan apartment, accelerated the comments. The problem with the reports was that Culkin was neither in Manhattan (he and his band were in Austin, Texas) nor dead. "We’re on tour you silly people," he tweeted at 1:46 p.m. He then posted a picture of himself posing like the body in Weekend at Bernies.