Posted on 06/13/2002 10:42:07 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
Communists have a problem with humor - they don't know it when they see it.
Lacking any kind of a funny bone, the Beijing Evening News is now blaming its report that the U.S. Capitol is about to be moved on The Onion - a satirical Web site which publishes outlandish parodies most 7-year-olds in the West would instantly recognize as a spoof.
Not so the grim-faced communists who run Beijing's state-run million-circulation daily - they fell for the satire hook, line and sinker and now they are blaming The Onion for doing what The Onion does.
The News at first refused to run a retraction of the story but finally gave in, but the retraction shifted the blame for its publishing the story as the Gospel truth on The Onion and not on its reporter for boldly plagiarizing The Onion story without ever citing the source.
As reported last week on NewsMax.com, the Beijing paper reported The Onion spoof that members of Congress want a brand-new Capitol, complete with a retractable dome and luxury boxes, in order "to stay competitive," as a genuine news story.
In its retraction, the News noted that after "our reporter in Washington checked out [the story], he discovered that some of its contents were identical to the Onion's joke article," the Beijing tabloid said Tuesday, according to Los Angeles Times reporter Henry Chu.
The paper acknowledged that the story was a fake, and admitted that the alleged quote from Speaker of the House Dennis J. Hastert, R-Ill., saying that the Capitol was past its prime was also phony.
The News went on to add a quote from an unnamed source on Capitol Hill that "The U.S. Capitol has 200 years of history and is a precious part of America's cultural heritage. It's impossible that it should be torn down on a whim."
Still unaware that spoofing the news is The Onion's stock in trade, the News ripped into the online publication:
"Some small American newspapers frequently fabricate offbeat news to trick people into noticing them, with the aim of making money," the paper said. "This is what the Onion does.
"According to congressional workers, the Onion is a publication that never ceases making up false reports," the Evening News said.
Ah so - it's all about capitalist greed - and in Beijing there's nothing funny about that.
This just makes me want to either Stooge-slap their managing editor, or not tell them what's going on, and watch the next act!
Most of the Birkenstock-wearing feministas 'round these parts have nothing to worry about in that regard.
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