America’s Finest News Source strikes again.
An Iranian media outlet, the Fars News Agency, published an article Friday morning that claimed the majority of white Americans prefer Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Barack Obama. The only issue? The poll was from a fake article by satirical news organization the Onion.
The article, which has since been taken off Fars’ website, quoted an ersatz poll from the Onion article — almost word-for-word — in saying that “77% of rural Caucasian voters … would much rather go to a baseball game or have a drink with Ahmadinejad than spend time with Obama.”
It went on to say that 60% of rural whites at least respect that “Ahmadinejad doesn’t try to hide the fact that he’s Muslim.”
Here’s a screenshot of the story before it was taken down:
The original article from the Onion, which went up on Monday, was titled “Rural Whites Prefer Ahmadinejad to Obama.” It’s not clear whether Fars cited the satirical article intentionally or not.
If Fars did indeed mistake the Onion article for the real deal, it’s not the first, and probably not the last, to be bested by the site. Earlier this month, ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith went on a Twitter rant after an Onion article published a story about him and a fictional son.
Tumblr page Literally Unbelievable archives the Onion‘s top stories that get wrongly interpreted.
Have you ever been fooled by the Onion? Let us know.
Image courtesy of Flickr, Daniella Zalcman.
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