The Sun Newspaper [snark]always a bastion of journalistic integrity[/snark] published a “news” report on February 12, 2009 about a video that 12 year old Reece Pitman took on his cell phone.  Here is the video:

As you can see, it does appear that a shadowy spirit crosses the path of the video.  Well, here’s the catch.  It is actually the magic trick “Ghost Vision” created by Andrew Mayne.  Here is Andrew Mayne’s promotional video on the trick:

Andrew discusses the Sun Newspaper article on his blog.  Oh, and you can purchase the trick for $15 from this site.

Not to be outdone.  Now Sweden is getting in on the act:

This time the guy who made this video admitted that it was the trick.  Here is what he had to say:

“Just to make everything clear!  This is a video I made with Ghost Vision at my home in Sweden and sent off to Swedens largest magazine Aftonbladet after they pubished the video from The Sun.  I sent it to them to verify that it is a trick video and that they might stop spreading this ghost thing to their readers.  They never replied.”

When people mistake a $15 magic trick for a “real” ghost it goes to show how much work skeptics have to do to try and bring rationality to the world at large.  As Mark Twain said, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.“