If you hadn’t known that Martin Lukes was a fictional character in Lucy Kellaway’s Financial Times column, you’d have thought the paper was providing a blogging platform to the convicted inside trader for real.
“In prison I do not have access to the internet, but I have limited ability to e-mail,” Lukes writes. “So InsideOut has been brought to you by my beloved ladywife, Sherril, who has agreed to cut and paste my entries onto the site.”
In fact, the FT.com blog is merely an online extension for the return to print of Kellaway’s made-up jailbird. And so is this YouTube video…
The FT is playing risky here with the line between truth and apparent deception. Anyone who’s familiar with the Lukes column will instantly be familiar with the situation. But those of us who aren’t die-hard readers of FT columns (ie. most people on the web) risk perceiving the paper is giving a voice to a felon from behind bars. It’s not exactly The Daily Show.