Editing The Patriot (2000 film) (section)

===False reviews controversy===
A highly positive review was purportedly written by a critic named [[David Manning (fictitious writer)|David Manning]], who was credited to ''[[The Ridgefield Press]]'', a small [[Connecticut]] weekly news publication. During an investigation into Manning's quotes, ''[[Newsweek]]'' reporter John Horn discovered that the newspaper had never heard of him.<ref name="Newsweek 2001-06-02">{{cite web |url=http://www.msnbc.com/news/581770.asp?cp1=1 |title=The Reviewer Who Wasn't There |last=Horn |first=John |date=June 2, 2001 |website=[[MSNBC]] |publisher=[[Newsweek]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010609225327/http://www.msnbc.com/news/581770.asp?cp1=1 |archive-date=June 9, 2001 |access-date=October 3, 2014 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref> The story emerged at around the same time as an announcement that Sony had used employees posing as moviegoers in television commercials to praise the film. All of those occurrences raised questions and controversies about ethics in [[film promotion]] practices.

On the June 10, 2001 episode of ''[[Le Show]]'', host [[Harry Shearer]] conducted an in-studio interview with Manning, whose "review" of the film was positive. The voice of Manning was provided by a computer [[voice synthesizer]].<ref name="leShow20010610">{{cite web | url=http://media.harryshearer.com/?ProgramID=128 | last=Shearer | first=Harry | title=le Show | publisher=HarryShearer.com | date=June 10, 2001 | access-date=January 5, 2009 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080530051629/http://media.harryshearer.com/?ProgramID=128 | archive-date=May 30, 2008 | df=mdy-all }}</ref>

On August 3, 2005, Sony made an out-of-court settlement and agreed to refund $5 each to dissatisfied customers who saw that and four other films in American theaters as a result of Manning's reviews.<ref name=IENews>{{cite news |url=http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=42&si=1445650&issue_id=12832 |title=Sony to pay $1.5m for film hoax |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071119061913/http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/news-gossip/sony-to-pay-15m-for-film-hoax-243752.html |archive-date=November 19, 2007 |newspaper=[[Irish Independent]] |date=August 5, 2005 |access-date=8 November 2018 |first=Catherine |last=Elsworthin}}</ref>