"Ha ha! Ya big dopes!"
Posted on 09/05/2009 10:28:06 AM PDT by Wardenclyffe
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.
"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".
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
"Ha ha! Ya big dopes!"
Hilarious
I don’t blame the Bangladeshi newspapers. I think all sources just copy each other without ever checking any facts.
I give these media outlets some credit. At least they fess up and apologize for getting the story wrong. Perhaps our news outlets here could learn something.
Maybe on a smaller story, but for calling the first moon landing a hoax? I would hope that any news organization would check the veracity of such an outrageous claim.
But the goal was achieved, the deceit......the rumours....
Did they learn this fine journalistic technique from CNBC, CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN?
Well at least they were smart enough NOT to take MSNBC seriously.
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