Onion trolls Bangladesh

OT: anything goes!

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White Haven
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Onion trolls Bangladesh

Post by White Haven »

The BBC wrote:One giant slip in Bangladesh news

Two Bangladeshi newspapers have apologised after publishing an article taken from a satirical US website which claimed the Moon landings were faked.

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."

The article said Mr 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.


“ The truth is that Neil Armstrong never gave such an interview. It was made up ”
Daily Manab Zamin
"It took only a few hastily written paragraphs published by this passionate denier of mankind's so-called 'greatest technological achievement' for me to realise I had been living a lie," the fake article "quoted" Mr Armstrong as saying.

The made-up quote went on to say that although the journey had felt real, in fact "the entire thing was filmed on a sound stage, most likely in New Mexico".

"I suppose it really was one small step for man, one giant lie for mankind."

'Numerous hits'

The story was published on the Onion's website on Monday and on Wednesday, the Daily Manab Zamin translated it into Bengali, attributing it to the Onion News Network in Lebanon, Ohio. It then ran in New Nation on Thursday.

Daily Manab Zamin, the only tabloid newspaper in Bangladesh, published an apology to its readers on Thursday, saying the report had "drawn a lot of attention".

"We've since learned that the fun site runs false and juicy reports based on a historic incident," it said.

"The Moon landing one was such a story, which received numerous hits on the internet.

"The truth is that Neil Armstrong never gave such an interview. It was made up. We are sorry for publishing the report without checking the information."
And I thought it was good when SDN Onion-trolled itself. :lol:
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Sarevok
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Re: Onion trolls Bangladesh

Post by Sarevok »

Turns out having Firefox and a word processor does not compensate for lack of actual journalism.

Seriously though, how many newspaper staff worldwide actually read carefully most of what goes into international affairs or sports pages ?
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Re: Onion trolls Bangladesh

Post by Sir Sirius »

The original Onion story. I have to admit that I find it very hard to belief that anyone could actually mistake that for a real news. It's just so damn obvious.
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Re: Onion trolls Bangladesh

Post by tim31 »

Ask yourself; do they have wingnut conspiracy theorists in Bangladesh(almost certainly yes), and are they regarded in the popular consciousness the same way as they are in United States(probably not).

Cultural differences, who knew??

That said Sarevok's point still stands; google is no sub for professional journalism.
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Re: Onion trolls Bangladesh

Post by Mayabird »

By realizing/owning up to being wrong, this tabloid is leagues ahead of the "Harry Potter promotes Satanism!!! !OMG!!" crowd, which may still be emailing that Onion article around and taking it as face value. Also journalists the world over who publish crap and then never write a retraction, or when they do stick it in a corner on page 10A or something where no one will ever see it. This isn't saying much, but I will give credit where credit is due.
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Re: Onion trolls Bangladesh

Post by Anguirus »

Ha! I read that article and found it hysterical (there are free Onion issues everywhere at UT), and it's really obvious, even for the Onion. Perhaps the irony did not cross the language barrier?
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Re: Onion trolls Bangladesh

Post by Amitabho »

Damn babelfish, making facetious items sound genuine...
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