text: The Web can be full of pranks and pitfalls any day of the year, but the temptation for mischief on April Fools’ Day can lead to trouble, even for news organizations. This seems to be what happened with Forbes.com on Sunday when it declared Mitt Romney had exited the Republican presidential race. 
   
   An April Fools’ prank at Forbes went awry when a blog claimed Mitt Romney, right, had stepped down and backed former senator Rick Santorum as the GOP presidential nominee. (Jae C. Hong/AP) 
   
   Contributor Len Burman wrote and published a blog on the news organization’s Web site headlined “Romney drops out of race, endorses Santorum,” about 10:40 Sunday morning. Editors pulled it down about a half-hour later, but not before the “news” spread on Twitter and claimed the top spot on Google News, albeit briefly. 
   
   Burman, an economics professor at Syracuse University and Forbes blogger for 10 months, says his piece was intended as obvious satire. 
   
   “It’s kind of baffling,” he said in a phone interview. “It was April Fools’ Day, and it was completely implausible. Nobody in the party would have said those things.” 
   
   Those “things” included faux quotes from the former Massachusetts governor saying that he has “no chance” to win the general election in December and that a Santorum candidacy would be in the “best interest of the party.” 
   
   Burman continued with Romney saying: “I don’t want to wait until 2020 to get my party back. I’m all about efficiency. Let’s get our butts kicked now and move on.” 
   
   News reports have Romney inching ever close to securing the GOP presidential nomination. 
   
   Defending his piece, Burman says it was intended as satire, to call out “some real issues with the right wing of the Republican Party. I was basically just trying to make a point about that.” 
   
   Shortly after the post was taken down, Burman published an explanation, saying Forbes pulled the entry down, “because of an unannounced ban on April Fool’s Day humor.” Editors have since taken down that post as well. 
   
   Burman says he writes, edits and publishes articles to the Forbes Web site, which are then back-read by editors. This was the first time he can remember editors taking down his content. 
   
   The editor responsible for removing Burman’s blogs, Executive Producer for Content Development Coates Bateman, did not immediately respond to messages left at his office. 
   
   Forbes.com doesn’t have a clear distinction among articles, blogs and columns, but to make his satirical intentions clear, Burman says he put the date — April 1, 2012 — at the bottom of the article. 
   
   Up to this point, he says, “I really thought the blog was my blog and as long as I didn’t do anything grossly irresponsible — and I don’t consider this to be in that category — I could do what I wanted with it.” 
   
   While his piece lives on in a personal blog he started this morning, Burman says he has learned an important lesson about the Web and social media. 
   
   “It’s the way the Internet works. The headline gets transmitted and nothing else,” he says. “I was hoping it would go viral, and I guess it has.” 
   
   More on April Fools’ Day: 
   
   8-bit Google Maps: Google’s most fun April Fools’ Day prank ever? 
   
   Warby Barker: April Fools’ eyewear for dogs 
   
   April Fool’s Day: The history of pranks (Video) ||||| TheWashingtonPost Mitt Romney caught off guard by staff’s April Fools’ Day prank 
   
   MILWAUKEE — There was a time when Mitt Romney was known for pranks. When a schoolyard crush married someone else, he painted the groom’s leather shoes with pink nail polish so when he knelt at the altar it would show. Then there was the time he dressed up as a police officer, put a flashing red light on the roof of his car and chased after two buddies while they were on a double date. 
   
   
   
   Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) jokes with Rep Paul Ryan (C) (R-Wis.) and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) during a pancake brunch at Bluemound Gardens on April 1, 2012 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Justin Sullivan - GETTY IMAGES) 
   
   But when his aides orchestrated an elaborate prank for him on Sunday, Romney was befuddled. He had forgotten it was April Fools’ Day. And on this morning, as he recounted to a crowd here, “they turned me into the April fool!” Luckily, the scene was caught on video. 
   
   The Republican presidential front-runner was all set to deliver a stump speech at a pancake breakfast in Milwaukee. He was ushered into a ballroom. He waited backstage behind a black curtain. Arrows on the floor showed him where to walk. 
   
   An aide warned Romney that, for whatever reason, turnout was low but that he would have to power through the event. “It’s really small,” one aide said, “but it will be okay.” 
   
   Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) went out first to introduce Romney, “the next president of the United States!” Romney could hear applause, and when his intro music, Kid Rock’s “Born Free,” blared from the speakers, he and Sen. Ronald H. Johnson (R-Wis.) walked out from behind the black curtain. 
   
   “It’s completely empty!” Romney said, save for a handful of aides. “There’s nobody there. I thought, ‘Oh, boy, this is gonna look really bad on the evening news, let me tell you.’ ” 
   
   It turned out that Ryan and Johnson were in on the prank, which Romney’s traveling aides had hatched up late Saturday night. They had built a fake set for a Romney event. The applause was really a soundtrack played through a set of speakers. 
   
   “So not only did they do that, but they caught it on camera,” Romney said. “You guys — this is known as ‘forgive but remember,’ I’ll tell ya. We’re gonna remember this.” 
   
   After aides shouted “April fools!” at him, the former Massachusetts governor made his way to the real ballroom, where he addressed an overflow crowd of several hundred supporters and served them pancakes.
target: – One of yesterday's April Fools' Day pranks apparently fooled a few too many people: A Forbes contributor posted a blog on Forbes.com claiming that Mitt Romney had dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Rick Santorum. Despite the fact that editors took it down after just half an hour, the news quickly went viral on Twitter and was, for a short time, the No. 1 story on Google News. The uproar is "kind of baffling," contributor Len Burman tells the Washington Post. "It was April Fools’ Day, and it was completely implausible. Nobody in the party would have said those things." Among Burman's "implausible" quotes from the original blog: Romney claiming he has "no chance" to win the general election and saying that Republicans should "get our butts kicked now and move on." The entire post is available on Burman's personal blog. Meanwhile, Romney also found himself the butt of an April Fools' Day prank dreamed up by his aides, the Post notes. Paul Ryan introduced Romney, set to give a stump speech at a Milwaukee pancake breakfast yesterday, but when the candidate emerged he was faced with an empty room. "I thought, 'Oh, boy, this is gonna look really bad on the evening news, let me tell you,'" says Romney, who had forgotten the date. After hearing cries of "April fools" he laughed it off and was taken to the real room, where several hundred supporters were gathered. The whole thing was caught on video, of course.