Posted on 06/07/2002 3:27:16 AM PDT by Skooz
BEIJING, June 7 (Reuters) - Beijing's most popular newspaper has unwittingly republished a bogus story about U.S. Congress threats to skip town for Memphis or Charlotte unless Washington builds them a new Capitol building with a retractable dome.
The source? America's celebrated spoof tabloid, the Onion.
The Beijing Evening News, which claims a circulation of 1.25 million, translated portions of the Onion's tall tale word-for-word in the international news page of its June 3 edition.
The reprinted version of the May 29 article, which parodies Congress as a Major League Baseball squad, also copied the Onion's would-be blueprint for a new legislative home that resembles a ballpark.
"Don't get us wrong: We love the drafty old building," the Onion jestingly quoted House Speaker Dennis Hastert saying.
"But the hard reality is, it's no longer suitable for a world-class legislative branch. The sight lines are bad, there aren't enough concession stands or bathrooms, and the parking is miserable."
The spoof from the brazen entertainment tabloid, which dubs itself "America's finest news source," apparently took in the Evening News.
"The story was written by one of our freelance writers," an editor at the Evening News told Reuters on Friday. "His stuff has been pretty much reliable before."
The editor said he had received other calls from readers about the article. "They were also suspicious of the contents."
Told the story came from the Onion and was not true, the editor said, "We would first have to check that out. If it's indeed fake, I'm sure there will be some form of correction."
IF?
Every time someone posts an Onion thread on FR you always get a few people responding as if it were for real. The threads actually become funnier than the article.
The PRC lurkers here were the one's posting stupid questions like "why would they pick Memphis?"
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.