The Onion, America’s Finest News Source and easily one of the best destinations for quality satire if we ever visited one, strikes yet again. Not only is it wiping the floor with real journalism on Google News Spotlight – a new section dedicated to in-depth journalism work – but it is also lovingly feeding the dinosaurs satirical stories that wind up getting reported as actual news.
Two Bangladeshi newspapers, The Daily Manab Zamin and New Nation, have been forced to apologize to the public today after having regurgitated a news article taken from The Onion website which claimed the Moon landings were faked.
The fake news article in question said Neil Armstrong had told a news conference he had been “forced to reconsider every single detail of the monumental journey after watching a few persuasive YouTube videos and reading several blog posts” by a conspiracy theorist.
From the BBC:
The Daily Manab Zamin said US astronaut Neil Armstrong had shocked a news conference by saying he now knew it had been an “elaborate hoax”.
Neither they nor the New Nation, which later picked up the story, realised the Onion was not a genuine news site. Both have now apologised to their readers for not checking the story.
“We thought it was true so we printed it without checking,” associate editor Hasanuzzuman Khan told the AFP news agency. “We didn’t know the Onion was not a real news site.”
Solid gold, and this quote from the tabloid newspaper’s associate editor fake news article truly puts the icing on top of the cake:
“I suppose it really was one small step for man, one giant lie for mankind.”
Keep on doing what you’re doing, The Onion. We love you.
(Via @minorissues)
Beautiful, truly beautiful.
I love reading Onion headlines for a while then going to CNN. The transition isn’t as easy as you’d think.
“New Galaxy Discovered 4,000 Light Years from Public’s Interest”
So, after Twitter, TC has found a new monetization partner in Onion?
One Onion story a day at least now..
Stories here are posted if they are interesting not because they could be paid ones.
2.It is not so, Onion makes the top stories alive in a lively and interesting way. This gives its presence on TC everyday.
Soon my pet..soon..
Fine. Onion makes the producers of Newspaper to go through it to collect a lively news. Onion proves its unreachable standard.
When will people learn you can’t believe everything you read on the internet.
Internet is no different from other media, unless you are suggesting that you believe everything in newspapers, TV, …
+1
The onion? Bubble gum for idle brain cells… Why don’t you just watch Idle or play Tweeter with yourself. Chatter, meaningless idle noise. Newspapers? Don’t bother, you might accidently learn something.
LOVE to know what newspaper you’re reading that gives up the real scoop. I wasn’t aware of any, and I’m a news junkie, ex-newspaper guy. When I want to learn something that doesn’t have the big corporation seal of approval, the only place to go is the web.
Bah… You’re probably just bitter because you fell for one of their stories, too. Go get a sense of what The Onion is: Humor.
ray clearly didnt get the memo….or is 16.
That’s a LIE! :-)
I don’t believe it – Everything on the internet is true – True! I tell you!
I don’t believe you!
Speaking of which, that quote is not from the tabloid’s editor – he lifted it from the very end of the Onion article.
they fooled me once too…
Hahahaha, thats indeed beautiful!
so very beautiful.
And no websites have ever been fooled by a spoof news article?
These website guys are absolute geniuses. All hail website guys!
Nothing but just wow!
One giant lie for mankind? Whew..
Keep on putting great news, I just love the Onion. I’ll keep wearing my Onion Goggles.
Fooling some sad little Bangladeshi attempts at newspapers is not something to brag about.
granted its a poor little country, but a sweeping ignoramus comment like that just begs for a reply. The country’s got over a hundred national dailies, three of them over 75 years old, a lot of which have online editions and have had so for close to a decade now (bangladesh got commercial internet in 1995, earlier than most in southeast asia), and a whole slew of other regional papers. As for the onion issue, i’ve come across plenty of US papers (one in minnesota comes to mind, from a couple of years back that reprinted a story from FARK) that had done the same.
perhaps you should simply keep using your mouth for breathing, as i’d presume you have done for all these years.
Ok there Mr. Wikipedia, don’t act like you knew all about the newspaper scene in Bangladesh.
i AM from bangladesh.
LOL! owned!
I’m Spartacus!
Don’t they realize that print media is dead in Bangladesh? Even the Onion got that idea a couple of years back. Ironically, their print circulation has increased because of it.
I wouldn’t call them “poor little.” It would have more to do with knowing what the Onion is, no? No one in the US picks it up thinking it is real (well, not twice, after excitedly embarrassing themselves in coffeehouse conversation)
Exactly. I remember CNN and some major media outlets reporting Steve Job’s death. Bangladesh has fairly decent media for a country in that situation.
The fact that these were tabloids is not surprising, even US tabloids regularly print ridiculous stuff. Ever read the World Daily, or the enquirer?
yeah, the The Daily Manab Zamin, score!!! you guys are unbelievable twats!
Score! The Onion always makes my day :)
http://www.traderbots.com
Why did they embarrass newspapers this time? It seems like they embarrassed Google news and it’s fancy algorithm that’s supposed to replace editors by choosing worthy stories.
Yup. I don’t know what Arrington is thinking. The decision to treat it as news wasn’t made by a human (reporter/blogger/editor) but a machine, the kind that Google keeps championing.
And US Primetime news would NEVER put somethingh false out.
Orson Wells anyone.
You out there Dan
And Orson Wells – any good radio plays out there!
Best Onion Article Ever – http://www.theo...tent/node/29257
gotta love the C-130 Short Plane
MPFree- you’re a r~e~t~a~r~d.
We need to treat EVERY article with incredulity. (Yes, even on TC.) Our brains like stuff before our brains question their legitimacy, and sometimes the “liking of stuff” neurons short circuit the questioning.
(If you like what I just said, you shouldn’t believe it. Who the F am I?)
Those Indians are so innocent. They don’t realise that westerners make up ridiculous bull just for the hell of it.
@RO
You might be the wisest man on earth but you don’t know people from Bangladesh are not called Indians, they are called Bangladeshi.
If you don’t’ have this little knowledge, and Google can rank the article – then that’s the fault of that poor reporter.
I admit that was a big mistake and embarrassed about that. But don’t’ generalized everyone in a same scale.
i AM from bangladesh
This is great but the “wiping the floor” business is so stupid. The “in depth” post says far less about the state of in depth journalism than it does about how lame google news is. Not one of the top stories would qualify as “in depth” but hey, why bother with detail, this is just a blog.
Seeing that Oregon player punch that Boise player reminded me of when Buzz Aldrin punched that reporter in the face. That AINT fake.
every thing on internet is not true, in depth analysis with solid facts leads to true conclusion, whether it is print media or electronic media,
A few years ago a foreign newspaper picked up another Onion story. I can’t remember which country it was, but the story was about how Congress wanted to leave DC if they didn’t get a new dome with the capability to open. They were considering other cities that would give them tax breaks and a new state-of-the-art hall.
The Onion is awesome!
This has happened before in Bangladeshi newspapers. One newspaper ittefaq reported the google toilet story as one of google’s finest technical innovation.
“News” reported by professionals, in a system that has built-in checks and balances is critical to everyone and it doesn’t matter how it is disseminated- on line, in the Onion, NYTimes, where ever. The less that is understood the greater the our collective peril.
At least, if I understand it correctly, these Bangladeshi newspapers apologised about their mistake. Our finest western newspapers, with well-educated reporters and fully equipped with all sorts of information channels, all too often contain silly errors that never even get rectified- unless some reader is so kind to send in a letter.
Ho hum ….”Weapons of Mass Destruction, definite presence of in Iraq…..”
See all main papers in US and UK a few years back
R
Lol at wipeing the floor of real journalism,
I’d be suprised with the current generation going through that they would even know the concept of ” real journalism” is.
As Robin so demonstrates in his post, tell me when are these backroom boys going to be shown that skill is involved in a profession rather than a grosly overvalued opinion.
LOL, I love those guys, they are amazing!
RT
http://www.anonymous-web.be.tc
The problem isn’t that they believed the story – the point of Onion’s (or any) satire is that something ridiculous looks credible at first blush. That’s precisely why it is funny.
The problem is that the editors ran a story without confirming the source. I wouldn’t take that in an undergrad paper — ANY journalist should know better.
Does anyone remember when the right wing religo’s used “direct quotes” from J.K. Rowling about how she was trying to teach kids the black arts?
They were “quoting” an Onion piece!
History repeats itself….
I’m Bangladeshi, and frankly I find it hilarious. It’s stupid of the newspapers to not recognize from the story itself – leave aside the onion’s reputation as a satirical paper – that it was a joke. No defense there.
Sadly, however, it seems there are a few here who are jumping at the opportunity to belittle a third world nation, which only proves their own ignorance, not much different from the ignorance of the bangladeshi, or “Indian” as some would have it (douchebags), papers that printed the article.
stupid bangladeshi’s haha
This reminds me of a guy in High School. He used to lift the HTML from CNN delete the article and put in an article from The Onion. Then print it out so it had all the CNN logos, copyright disclaimers, etc. Then bring it into class for our current events discussion. The teacher never caught on, he’d get suspicious but when he showed him it came from CNN it would usually end the debate over it’s authenticity.
oh the horror. what next? news anchors getting their news ’scoop’ from twitter feeds? oh wait, they do that already
Two days ago a guy who I met during my daughter’s soccer practice (after we spoke about what I used to do at space program many years ago) said, “but did you hear that Neil Armstrong admitted the moon missions were a hoax? I’m like, no way, no way. He is yes, yes, it is true I read it on the Web. He left to his game, I took out my Android and started searching — the result 1) The Onion News (ha!), 2) a Bangladesh news web site citing The Onion! (HA!).
I just laughed hard, text’ed the guy, and remembered like 8 years ago when the head of marketing sent to the us in exec team at a startup a worrisome news: “Gates is trying to patent zeroes and ones!” — source of the news, The Onion News!
Good times…
ceo
This shouldn’t be surprising, considering that Google News still lists Onion articles side-by-side with actual news.
I don’t like the Onion ever since reading an article in which they made fun of babies with Down Syndrome. I realize the publication is not real journalism, but publishing a statement like that is crossing the line.