Trust The Onion. Two Bangladeshi newspapers recently took that statement quite literally, which was a big mistake.
The Onion recently ran a Moon landing conspiracy piece - Conspiracy Theorist Convinces Neil Armstrong Moon Landing Was Faked, featuring a spoof interview with Neil Armstrong, who supposedly only now realizes he had been fooled into thinking he had actually walked on the Moon:
According to Armstrong, he was forced to reconsider every single detail of the monumental journey after watching a few persuasive YouTube videos, and reading several blog posts on conspiracy theorist Ralph Coleman's website, OmissionControl.org.
"It only took a few hastily written paragraphs published by this passionate denier of mankind's so-called 'greatest technological achievement' for me to realize I had been living a lie, " said a visibly emotional Armstrong, addressing reporters at his home. "It has become painfully clear to me that on July 20, 1969, the Lunar Module under the control of my crew did not in fact travel 250,000 miles over eight days, touch down on the moon, and perform various experiments, ushering in a new era for humanity. Instead, the entire thing was filmed on a soundstage, most likely in New Mexico."
"This is the only logical interpretation of the numerous inconsistencies in the grainy, 40-year-old footage," Armstrong added.
More at the link.
Pretty funny. Except that journalists and editors at a couple of Bangladeshi newspapers thought The Onion was a real news site, and the Armstrong interview was real. They re-published the story as though it were fact:
"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."
Hey, I’ve got a couple of other real news sites these newspapers could use as a source for their articles. For example:
The British Veterinary Voodoo Society
I guess the moral is always check your sources. And yes, I did check a couple of other sources before I wrote this post.
I've actually had friends refer me to Onion articles as if they were real. Yeesh.
I've got some other "real" science places that they could look too
Discovery Institute
Institute for Creation Research
North American Society of Homeopaths (NASH)
American College of Acupuncture
Heartland Institute
.
.
.
they are just as much of a joke..
Posted by: Techskeptic Techskeptic | September 08, 2009 at 08:46 AM
Have you got hiccups, Techskeptic, or have you just changed your handle?)
I'm an old hand on sites like ApolloHoax.net and Clavius.org, as I imagine you may be, Tech. If so, you know only too well the Mohorovicic depths to which people's IQs can plummet when they hear the two nouns "Moon" and "Landing" in close proximity.
It seems this affliction may no longer be restricted to wealthy Western countries.
Posted by: Big Al | September 08, 2009 at 09:04 AM
The Onion strikes again, and, hooks another sucker. Trouble is, their articles are generally so damn good. I love 'em.
Posted by: bigjohn756 | September 08, 2009 at 09:13 AM
I have no idea why my handle is stuttering now. It happened when I started signing in with my google account. At least it remembers me now. :/
Where the hell did you pick up a term like Mohorovicic? I had to go look that one up.
Posted by: Techskeptic Techskeptic | September 08, 2009 at 09:43 AM
Haha, unfortunately it's not the first time The Onion is taken seriously.
Makes you wonder when you read about the Chinese newspaper who republished the story about congress threatening to move to another city if they weren't given a new building with a retractable roof. According to the wikipedia page the "Evening News initially stood by the story, demanding proof of its falsehood"...... Fail-O-lympics.
Posted by: Martin | September 08, 2009 at 10:20 AM
I read a book called "The Mohole Mystery" by Hugh Walters when I was a teeny-tiny proto-skeptic. Mr Walters wrote a series of novels about astronaut Chris Godfrey and his spacefaring chums Tony Hale, Morrey Kant and Serge Smyslov.
Most of the Chris Godfrey novels involved travelling to other solar planets, and the main premise was to maximise the real scientific content and keep the "magic technological wand" bit to a minimum.
"The Mohole Mystery" was a rare departure set on Planet Earth, and that taught me the marvellous term Mohorovicic Discontinuity.
Posted by: Big Al | September 08, 2009 at 11:35 AM
Don't forget:
Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie
California's Velcro Crop Under Challenge (1993)
The Dog Island
...and my personal favorite...
Save The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus
Posted by: Daniel Smith | September 08, 2009 at 01:08 PM
Hey, never mind about Armstrong and the moon hoaxers - the real point of this story is that there's someone out there named "Hasanuzzuman!" And it's Hasanuzzuman Khan no less! My coolness meter just peaked into the red, no matter how gullible the guy is! Sorry, back on topic -
Posted by: Stan9FOS | September 11, 2009 at 10:20 AM
Hi ... love the blog...
Diff.Thinkr
Think Anew
Posted by: Diff.thinkr | September 12, 2009 at 04:41 AM
You could add The Hindu to the list too. They L-o-V-e homeopathy and reprint any and all garbled nonsense their local snake charmers ask them to.
Posted by: Sebastian Larsen | October 05, 2009 at 05:24 PM