The Associated Press was more careful. The AP said the video "purportedly" showed the beheading of an American, but was at pains to point out the video was inconsistent with previous videos seen in the past:

Unlike in previous videos of hostage killings, no militants were seen on the footage. He was clad in a T-shirt, not the orange jumpsuit that other hostages have been dressed in.

The video was also undated, according to the AP. The BBC also refused to authenticate the video.

Later the AP were able to reach Mr. Vanderford who confirmed the video was a fake and that it has been on the internet for months.

Mr. Vanderford, who (according to media outlets) is running for municipal office in San Francisco (his campaign website looks like another hoax to me) has a lot of explaining to do. He says he won't apologize for the tasteless stunt because he wanted to show how easily a beheading could be faked and how quickly the media would spread the story.

While Mr. Vanderford may be an insensitive jerk, Al-Arabiya has been a willing accomplice. The Arab news agency has been in battle for influence in the Middle East with Al-Jazeera which has managed to keep its name in the news around the world by providing the world with an endless stream of videos starting with Osama bin Laden praising the September 11th attacks to a recent series of grizzly beheading videos. Western media have come to rely on Al-Jazeera as a source, though their credibility has diminished as they have become more cavalier with their own sourcing.

Clearly, the website in question was not an Islamic website as Al-Arabiya reported. If any media outlet in world should have known that it should have been either Al-Arabiya or Al-Jazeera. Having seen a myriad of other beheadings these media outlets should have quickly seen the inconsistencies and done some more work to find out if the video was legitimate.

I suppose in a media climate where being first is paramount, I expect too much when I also ask them to be right.