Cristina Mittermeier

And that's the hypothesis that's put out by the Canadian paper, The Globe and Mail, which asks, is fake news okay if it's for a good cause? Now the op-ed argues that such heart-wrenching stories can backfire because they take credibility away from very real problems.

Even National Geographic later published in its magazine an essay by photographer Christina Mittermeier titled, Starving Polar Bear Photographer Recalls What Went Wrong.

Kind of slick, is it not? What went wrong? Yeah, with what? It was a hook, though.

Most notable in this piece was the editor's note attached to it.