Ahmed’s Clock: Media Accused Of Falling For ‘Hoax’

The Inquisitr reported on Saturday that Ahmed Mohamed has faced accusations from a writer claiming to be an electrical engineer, writing for Art Voice, that Ahmed’s clock is little more than a “hoax.” The article exposes evidence from the high resolution shots released by the Irving Police that include “silk screening” on the board, indicating Ahmed’s clock was most likely made from a mass-produced circuit board from an alarm clock.

The writer is even able to identify the original item on eBay that Ahmed’s clock was most likely derived from. He claims that producing Ahmed’s clock would have been a simple matter of removing the casing from the vintage alarm clock and placing it in a box. The writer attempts to verify the size of the vintage clock he believes matches Ahmed’s by finding the pencil case it was stored in and comparing the measurements, which did match.

So, while there isn’t enough evidence to say that Ahmed’s clock in any way warranted the school and police response, there are some concerns that the subsequent claims by the student to the press that Ahmed’s clock was “invented” do appear to be in some doubt.

The willingness of so much mainstream media to take the entire story at face value is concerning. Ahmed’s clock has gained significant attention, and even resulted in an invitation to the White House and an entire shipment of Microsoft’s latest products, which you can read about on Neowin. All this for “inventing” Ahmed’s clock, which it appears there is some chance may not have been “invented” by the teen after all.

The New York Post asserts that the “convenience” of the “Ahmed’s clock” story led to it being pushed so unquestioningly by the press. The reporter notes that while the police “did overreact” to the discovery of Ahmed’s clock, there have been a long series of similar overreactions to creative endeavors by students, whether it’s chewing a Pop Tart into an unusual shape or writing a story about shooting dinosaurs.

Just because the school system and police have some broad issues, catching students of all races in their web of overreaction, doesn’t mean this case actually involved racism. Just because Ahmed claimed to “invent” a clock doesn’t mean he necessarily did. It’s important to take a step back and consider the facts and all the cases of problems in schools, rather than overreacting to one story that has gone “viral,” and jumping to conclusions. Perhaps except jumping to the conclusion that punishing kids for bringing something as harmless as Ahmed’s clock, a pop tart, or a story about dinosaurs into school is probably something that should be avoided.

[Photo by Ben Torres / Getty Images]