White House representative Larry Speakes said reports of a planned attack on Libya as first broken by The Wall Street Journal on August 25, 1986 were "authoritative", and other newspapers including The Washington Post then wrote articles saying this was factual.
Pressekreteraren i Vita huset, Larry Speakes, hävdade att nyheten om ett planerat anfall mot Libyen som först publicerades i The Wall Street Journal 25 augusti 1986, var "officiell" och andra tidningar, däribland The Washington Post, skrev därefter artiklar som beskrev den påhittade nyheten som ren fakta.