Smollett is a 36-year-old wealthy man, a celebrity. If he had been given the chance, he would have sent innocent people to prison — and would have done so with support of the media and elected representatives.
This is America 2019. https://www.american...ax_machine.html
First, one finds journalistic hoaxes. Among these are the hoax of the Duke lacrosse-players and the UVA rape case. Such cases are fabricated and sensationalized in order to support the ideological claim of "rape culture on campuses."
Second, there are academic hoaxes, which are "studies" based on fabricated data and cherry-picked samples designed to provide an ideological outcome. For example, there was a study that showed that gays die much earlier because people do not support calling two men in a romantic relationship a marriage.
The third type is the fake hate crime. They are meant to prove the existence of violent bigots who attack the heroic victims, such as Jussie Smollett, Mathew Shepherd, and Tyler Clementi.