CNN’s Soledad O’Brien Reveals That 1% Tip Story Was A Hoax

On Monday, CNN’s Starting Point ran a story about a banker who left a 1% tip at a California restaurant, along with a note that said “Get a real job!”

The story originated on the internet, went viral, and after making it all the way to CNN’s air, was revealed to be a hoax. Soledad O’Brien delivered the news on Wednesday morning’s Starting Point.

It was one of those stories that we in the media call “irresistible,” a simple, black-and-white illustration of a larger topical theme, with a healthy dose of human interest. The story originated on a (since deleted) blog called Future Ex-Banker, was disseminated via Twitter, and was picked up by The Huffington Post, and others. The writer on that blog claimed that his boss, a card-carrying one-percenter, routinely leaves a 1% tip, along with a nasty message to his server. Here’s what he said (via Google cache):

Lunch with my generous boss by Future Ex Banker

Mention the “99%” in my boss’ presence and feel his wrath. So proudly does he wear his 1% badge of honor that he tips exactly 1% every time he feels the server doesn’t sufficiently bow down to his Holiness. Oh, and he always makes sure to include a “tip” of his own.

The blog included this photo of the receipt:

Now, in CNN’s defense, they did contact the restaurant for their report on Monday, and were told that they were investigating the incident. As O’Brien revealed this morning, the True Food Kitchen tracked down the original receipt, which actually showed a $7 tip on a $33.54 tab (about 21%) , not a $1.33 for a $133.54 bill.

After explaining the details of the hoax, O’Brien asked “Who did it? Was it a message about the 1%, or was it a message about the conversations about the 1%?”

Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey, and other conservatives, seem pretty sure they know the answer to that. Ed points out that the story “really was too good to be true,” and concludes by saying “without a lot of flat-out lies, where would the Occupy movement be?”

There is a pretty good circumstantial case that this hoax was perpetrated by Occu-propagandists, trying to foment class warfare, even though the 1% have already done a great job of providing symbolic fuel to that fire that is arguably worse than this receipt. While there’s a chance that this hoaxer overlaps with Occupy in some way, I don’t think that was the main point of this exercise.

The biggest clue to our hoaxer’s motivation is how this story was disseminated. The FutureExBanker Twitter account (since deleted) sent the photo to the food blog Eater, which solicits photos of noteworthy receipts. From there, The Huffington Post’s food blog picked up the story.

Among restaurant workers, there’s a strong movement to educate people about tipping, shame poor tippers, and to push back against Mr. Pink Syndrome, the mistaken belief that tips are “something extra,” and that restaurant servers make minimum wage (they do in California, but not in most states). In reality, most restaurant servers make about $2.20 an hour, but they are taxed on those wages, plus 10% of their sales. In most restaurants, servers also have to pay 3% of their sales to the bus-persons and the bartender, which is called “tipping out.”

That means that if you stiff a waitress on a $100.00 check, she has to pay $3.00 to the bartender and the busboys, plus pay taxes on the $2.20 she made that hour, and on the $10 the government assumes your cheap ass left her. She’s actually paying for the privilege of serving you. Now, if you think restaurants shouldn’t be set up that way, fair enough, but the fact is, in most cases, tipping is not “something extra” for the server.

This isn’t the first time I’ve come across a case of apparent pro-tipping propaganda. There was a hugely-popular Facebook page devoted to pushing back against Oprah Winfrey’s advice that people could cut their tipping to 10% as a response to the recession. The problem is, Oprah never said anything like that. The whole point was to raise awareness about tipping.

The fact that this went to a food blog, and that the actual original receipt contained a restaurant-server-approved 21% tip, lead me to believe that the primary motivation for this was shaming crummy tippers, and that the Occupy language was topical window dressing. If the hoaxer is ever revealed, I bet $1.33 it was a restaurant server.

Here’s the clip, from CNN:

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.