Someone on YouTube is claiming to have taken control of the electronic news ticker outside News Corp.'s Manhattan headquarters and reprogrammed it with anti-Fox News messages. Is it real? Probably not! But it's fun to imagine playing pirate radio with Fox's ticker.

The video shows a woman walking out of the Rockefeller Center subway stop onto the street in from of News Corp.'s Sixth Avenue headquarters. It shows the ticker functioning normally. Then she makes a call on her cell phone, at which point the feed goes blank, flashes green, and switches over to "WE ARE BEING LIED TO. RIGHTWINGERS ARE DESTROYING THE MIDDLE CLASS....."

Arguments for it being real: 1) It looks pretty real. 2) It would be nice if it were real. 3) Fox News hasn't responded yet to the claim.

Arguments against it being real:

Firstly, fake "video hacks," in which bystanders seem to take control of a public electronic screen, are a growing trend. Secondly, while a few passersby in the video glance up at the hijacked ticker, none of them seem to react appropriately to seeing an anti-corporate political message scrolling out in front of the News Corp. headquarters. And thirdly, our guess is that the video was taken on or about May 9. A fragment of the normally functioning ticker visible in the video reads "...trucks may have problem with fuel tanks that could cause spills and fire." That language corresponds with an AP report about fuel tank troubles with the Ford F-150 that appeared on May 9. Which means that these people pulled off a really cool trick and then waited three weeks before announcing it by placing it anonymously on YouTube with no fanfare. Which would be odd.

But what do we know?

UPDATE: According to TV Newser and the Huffington Post, Fox News is saying that the "hack" is indeed a hoax. But they would say that, wouldn't they?