History Main / AuthenticationByNewspaper

* On ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'', when Leonard is getting ready to go to the Bakersfield [=ComicCon=], he takes a picture of him and Penny with the day's paper, to prove she actually exists to the other ner... attendees he will be meeting.

* The ''Series/{{Castle}}'' episode "Poof, You're Dead" has an accidental variant; Beckett notices that a set of wheelchair tracks at the victim's workshop run over a newspaper dated the day he died, implying that whoever was in the wheelchair must have something to do with the murder.

* This is used to foil an attempted scam in [[http://notalwaysright.com/dont-commit-the-crime-if-you-cant-tell-time/11529 a post]] of ''Website/NotAlwaysRight''.

* In an episode of ''Series/TheIncredibleHulk'' a restaurant David works at is vandalized by a reporter cooking up a story to make it look like there are serious health code violations and may have to shut down. The previous morning they just happened to have taken a picture of their cook with the day's newspaper, which shows that their kitchen was clean.

* One ComicBook/DonaldDuck comic has his nephews foil a scam by noticing that the guy just turned the date from a 3 to an 8 with a marker.

* ''Website/TheOnion'': ''[[http://www.theonion.com/content/news/report_majority_of_newspapers_now Report: Majority of Newspapers Now Purchased by Kidnappers to Prove Date]]''

[[caption-width-right:350:This is more recursive than most examples.]]

* In ''Film/MidnightRun'', a bounty hunter takes a picture of his latest target with that day's newspaper. He shows it to the gangsters he's selling the target to before upping his price. The plan backfires because he didn't think to remove towels with the name of the hotel on them before he took the picture.
* In ''Film/JingleAllTheWay'', it's used to confirm that the toy the character was looking for was available that day.
* In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment in ''Film/HotFuzz'', after accusing Timothy Dalton's character of being a murderer, Nicholas Angel is foiled by camera footage that shows Dalton in his store when the murder was committed. After a few seconds of Angel's disappointed look, the camera cuts back to Dalton, and in the background, the security monitor is showing him very obviously holding up a recent newspaper, almost as though he knew someone would be checking the footage.

* A videotape version is used in Creator/TomClancy's novel ''Literature/TheSumOfAllFears''. In order to prove when the tape was made, the filmmaker set up a TV with a news program on in the corner of the room. Another variation from the formula is that the tape wasn't intended as evidence that the kidnap victims were ''alive'', but as evidence that they were ''dead'', as it had been made for the benefit of the person who'd ordered the hit.

* In the sequel series of ''Literature/OnTheRun'' ''Kidnapped'', the kidnappers do this, but in turn, make Meg realize that the date is her birthday and have her cry. The only sympathetic kidnapper, Mickey, later tries to remedy this by giving her a cupcake and a match (to act as a candle).

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' had an episode where the two title characters accidently get turned into babies ([[ItMakesSenseInContext don't ask long story]]) and Candace tries to get Phineas to hold a newspaper with a the current date after their mom mistakes the first one she sent for an old baby picture Candace dug up. Being babies, they tear up the newspaper before she take the picture.

* In ''Call Northside 777'' (1948), a reporter played by Jimmy Stewart proves a man's innocence by blowing up a wire service photo to show the date on a newspaper being held up by a paperboy in the background. (Though they didn't actually need to go that far -- as long as they could see the headline they could tell what date it was from the paper's archives.) This may be the earliest example of this trope [[EnhanceButton and possibly another one]].

* In ''[[http://www.potionsandsnitches.org/fanfiction/viewstory.php?sid=3498&textsize=0&chapter=2 Building Doors]]'' Harry's barrister has him hold up today's ''Daily Prophet'' while pictures of his relatives' abuse are taken.

[[folder:Comics]]
* One DonaldDuck comic has his nephews foil a scam by noticing that the guy just turned the date from a 3 to an 8 with a marker.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' uses this trope in "The First David Job". As part of their plan to sell a faked Michelangelo statue, they photograph their fake with a recent newspaper to prove to their victim that they actually have it.
* ''Series/JonathanCreek''
** Subverted in the 2008 special. There was a video showing a kidnapped woman and that morning's local newspaper. It turned out that [[spoiler: the woman in charge of the newspaper was in on it and released a swarm of bees at the local council's meeting so she could make sure she knew what the front page story would be]].
** There's also a variation in an earlier episode where a woman gets an alibi due to a faked video of a stalker filming her while she flips through Thursday night's TV. It turns out that this was actually a videotape compiled out of splicing together recordings to make it look as though she was channel-hopping, and was recorded the night after.
** Also used in the episode "Angel Hair" in which a group of men kidnap a woman and display a newspaper. This however backfires on the kidnappers. [[spoiler:They want it to seem as though the woman is in on the kidnapping and is about to extort money out of her lover by pretending to be held hostage. Unfortunately their tactic of cutting off all her hair causes an inconsistency in the tape (which the recipient watches as it was being ''recorded live'') considering they rig the set-up immediately ''after'' she had just participated in a catfight complete with hair-pulling.]] Coupled with the date that the newspaper provides, it seems impossible that the woman's hair grew back in so short a time.
* This is served with a massive dose of FridgeLogic in ''Series/{{Dexter}}'''s second season. Bad guy Little Chino gives the cops a video of him holding a newspaper as if it were proof that he was somewhere else on the day a murder took place. (It has a timestamp from the camera on it, but those can be faked pretty easily too....)
* Happens in ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' in a way, where Ted tells Victoria her care package is already in the mail and he sent it a few days ago when in fact he hasn't made it yet. In said care package is the BigApplesauce Times from three days ago. (Which, of course, proves nothing.)

* Referenced in an episode of ''Series/StargateSG1''. Upon time-travelling back to ancient Egypt, Daniel grabs his camera claiming he wants to get proof the pyramids predate the Third Dynasty. [[DeadpanSnarker Jack]] points out the obvious flaw in this plan by asking if he plans to include the local newspaper to "prove" the date.
* ''Series/{{Journeyman}}'' pulls off proof of age, but it ''is'' a time travel show. Dan takes Katie's wedding ring into the past, puts it in a toolbox with that day's newspaper, and buries it in what would become their backyard. Back in the present, Dan takes a sledgehammer to the patio to dig up the box:
-->'''Katie:''' What are you doing?!\\
'''Dan:''' Saving my marriage.\\
'''Katie:''' Not really!
:: The newspaper doesn't actually ''prove'' anything, since getting a newspaper from years ago, putting it in a box, and burying it under your patio, without a trace, is merely very very difficult, not impossible. The ring is actually better proof, since she has seen her ring recently, and knows the patio hasn't been disturbed since it left her possession.
* Parodied (of course) in a ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' sketch following the invasion of Iraq that had Saddam Hussein sending out a video to prove to the Iraqis that he was still alive. As authentication, he held up a calendar with the day marked.
** In another episode, ostensibly from 1999, Creator/JohnGoodman tried to do this to prove the episode wasn't an eight-year-old rerun. The audience member who'd challenged him on this point wasn't convinced.

* A variant in ''Series/Studio60OnTheSunsetStrip'': The show-within-the-show is shown live on the East Coast, but tape-delayed for the West Coast. In one episode, they need to insert a live apology for the West Coast, and prove that it's live. They do so by having the actor give an up-to-the-second sports score.
* In the ''Series/WhiteCollar'' episode "Front Man", a kidnapper has his victim record her proof-of-life video while holding a newspaper in order to make it more convincing.

* The ''Series/{{Castle}}'' episode "Poof, You're Dead" has an accidental variant; Beckett notices that a set of wheelchair tracks at the victim's workshop run over a newspaper dated the day he died, implying that whoever was in the wheelchair must have something to do with the murder.
* On ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'', when Leonard is getting ready to go to the Bakersfield [=ComicCon=], he takes a picture of him and Penny with the day's paper, to prove she actually exists to the other ner... attendees he will be meeting.
* In ''Series/BlackBooks'', Manny tells Bernard that his ex-girlfriend is still alive and Fran knows her. Fran confesses, knowing the jig is up, but Bernard refuses to believe it, so Fran shows him pieces of evidence that eventually escalates to a photo of her holding yesterday's newspaper and wearing an "I Love Life" shirt.

* ''Series/TheATeam'' had an episode where a judge's daughter had been kidnapped, and her captors take a picture like this to prove she's alive and unharmed.
* ''Series/FatherBrown'': In "The Daughter of Autolycus", the kidnappers of Flambeau's daughter send him a photograph of her holding that day's newspaper.
* In ''Series/{{Frequency}}'', Frank takes a picture of himself with a newspaper in 1996 and buries it to be found by Raimy in 2016. The date on the paper convinces her that their communication across time is for real.
* In ''Series/TheLeftovers'' episode "Don't Be Ridiculous", Nora watches the video clips of volunteers who hold up newspapers to prove the day of recording.

* A comedic version on ''Series/EmptyNest''. When Carol goes to her high school reunion and tries to prove to her disbelieving former classmates that she has a boyfriend, she shows them a picture of the two of them, with him holding a newspaper with the current date. They scoff at this, stating that she did the same thing during her school days.

* Sometime in mid-2011, a website placed up a story about how Hayley Williams of Music/{{Paramore}} was to appear on a magazine (called G-String, a supposed dirty magazine that nobody had heard of dedicated to rock chicks) cover topless. However, it was proven to be fake by a number of things, including the fact that a ''real'' topless pic had became well known online and people were comparing the two images, and a thong is very prominent despite her refusal to talk about her underwear choices. But the thing that proved it false was, the hoaxer placed a date on it to make it look legit... except that it claimed it was a year old, making it, if it was real, far too old to have not been discovered before had it been real. It did get some praise however for being a very realistic photoshop image and did look real.

-->'''Homer:''' What will you do when there are no more newspapers?\\
'''Criminal:''' Perhaps by then we will live in a world with no need for kidnappings.\\
'''Homer:''' Oh. Way to make me feel obsolete.

* In 2006, Fidel Castro went into a hospital for intestinal surgery. To prove he'd come through it alive, he sent a picture of himself holding a newspaper to the press.

* When [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Ilan_Halimi Ilan Halimi]] was kidnapped by the Fofana gand on 2006, his family was sent a video of him holding the current ''Le Parisien'' issue.

* In ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' episode 4 season 1: Piper makes a photo of crime lord Tony Wong, while he is holding the newspaper that reports his death, to prove he at least outlived his own death report.

* The text "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks" was attached to [[https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Genesis_block the very first bitcoins]]. Both to guarentee no coins existed before that date and as a snarky remark about the current banking system.

* ''Film/TerminalVelocity1994''. Chris Morrow leaves a bunch of photos of herself holding a sign saying, Ditch Brodie Did Not Kill Me, after using Brodie to fake her death in a skydiving accident to throw her pursuers off the trail.

* In ''Spycraft: The Great Game'' the protagonist may fake this by using proper newspaper and the photo-editing software to coerce an enemy agent to disclose some information (the edited picture corroborates the story that the lover of the interrogated agent has been already captured).

* ''{{Journeyman}}'' pulls off proof of age, but it ''is'' a time travel show. Dan takes Katie's wedding ring into the past, puts it in a toolbox with that day's newspaper, and buries it in what would become their backyard. Back in the present, Dan takes a sledgehammer to the patio to dig up the box: