Can We Stop It? Rick Astley is Not Dead

In the wake of the recent celebrity deaths (Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Billy Mays) have come a spike in fake death news. Jeff Goldblum, Britney Spears, George Clooney, and Tuesday, Rick Astley. No, none of them are dead.

The latest sick "so-and-so is dead" news was that 80's pop star Rick Astley was dead. It started with a purported AP release going around the Internet. While reportedly quite well "simulated," it didn't actually appear on the Associated Press wire itself.

The story stated that singer-songwriter Rick Astley, most famous for his mega-hit song "Never Gonna Give You Up" in 1987, had been found dead in a Berlin Hotel Room. Much like the "Fake Steve Jobs Heart Attack" story from last year, this also appeared on CNN's iReport, based on that same fake AP release. iReport stories, as you know, is not vetted before posting.

Additionally, a link on the Digg social networking site took visitors to a YouTube video of Astley singing "Never Gonna Give You Up" adding, "You've beeen Rickrolled."

Rickrolling is when you get an end user to click on a link that takes them to Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" video. When a person clicks on the link and is led to the web page, he or she is said to have been "Rickrolled."

Although the culprits reponsible for this "Rick Astley is dead" campaign probably thought it was funny, it was sick and repulsive during a week when several prominent celebrities died. Can we stop this sickness now?