Reports of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell‘s death have been greatly exaggerated. Hackers got a hold of the @NFL Twitter account early this afternoon and at least one media outlet took the bait.
At 12:41 p.m., in the middle of a commercial break, CNBC flashed a banner on screen, citing the NFL, that Goodell had died. It was up for about :10 seconds. By the time Fast Money returned from break about a minute later, another banner read that the tweet had been deleted.
Then, around 12:48 p.m. anchor Sue Herrera cleared up the confusion, reporting that the account had been hacked.
Here’s the original, now deleted, tweet:
NFL has engaged law enforcement to see how its Twitter account got hacked. NFL also reviewing, strengthening its cyber-security measures.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) June 7, 2016