Posted by
ryuzaki0
on from the eat-that-suckers dept.
mattsucks writes "Reuters is reporting a story about the Beijing Evening News. Apparently, they too believe that everything they read on the internet is true, republishing a story from The Onion. Or at least one of their freelance writers believes it...." This is absolutely great.
I'd actually like to see someone take the Onion's kids explanation [theonion.com] of why the Sept. terrorist attacks happened seriously.
Good point. This is actually a very serious introduction to some of the key points of modern Islamic fundamentalism. When I first read it I went looked up Qutb. No other major media outlet that I know of has bothered to give people the starting point to actually find out how and why bin Laden came to be.
Ignore The Onion at your peril.
-- A well-crafted lie appears unquestionable - Dama Mahaleo
I'd actually like to see someone take the Onion's kids explanation of why the Sept. terrorist attacks happened seriously.
For anyone who hasn't seen it, the article "Talking To Your Child About the WTC Attack" is online. In fact, their entire "Holy Fucking Shit: America Under Attack" It's the single most brilliant issue of the Onion ever. It captured the fear, the uncertainly, the random lashing out. It reflected America in a way that no other news source had done. It managed to be respectful and sad, yet very funny. It was exactly what America needed.
On the radio lastnight as I was driving home.and almost crashed...
but anyways I guess this just shows that you have to choose a source carefully.. I mean who really needs a new capital with a retracting dome and stadium seating?
-- The greatest right given is the right to be wrong...
Best Onion Headline...
by
dontod
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· Score: 4, Funny
Mr T to pity fool.
Don.
-- Slashdot - The Home of the Tortured Analogy
Shameless Karma Whoring
by
ringbarer
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· Score: 3, Informative
In case anyone's interested, the Onion article is here! (No goatse.cx links, sorry!)
TOTALLY believable!
-- "Why did they cancel my favorite Sci-Fi show? I downloaded ALL the episodes!"
Re:Shameless Karma Whoring
by
cheezedawg
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Although this story is funny, I think its also a reflection of how the Chinese view the US. They view Americans as shallow and self-centered, and a story like this would jump out at them to confirm thier beliefs. Its like they wanted it to be true so they could say "See what dumb things those Americans are doing now!"
-- "The defense of freedom requires the advance of freedom" - George W Bush
I've proposed a new capital in AZ or NM, with an absolute ban on any form of air conditioning, but then, my home is a state where we only let the legislature meet a couple of months every other year (NV).
Exporting Congress is a great idea . . . but wouldn't the recipients regard it as an act of war?
hawk
I can see it now...
by
gambit3
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· Score: 5, Funny
In my high school...
Teacher: Gambit, you didn't write this!
Gambit: uh, well...
Teacher: You COPIED this, didn't you?
Gambit: Well, maybe a little...
Teacher: That's PLAGIARISM! Where do you think you're going to end up if you just copy other people's article??
In, shall we say, less-developed countries, there is very low internet penetration. But the people who do have computers also have printers, and internet "news" from such stellar paragons of reliability as azzam.com and kavkaz.org is printed out and widely distributed. However, due to the internet's high-tech reputation as a worldwide communications net, simple peasants and villagers, as well as educated people who should know better, ascribe a credibility to internet news stories that Westerners would find to be astounding. After all, the internet runs on computers - how could such amazing machines tell lies all by themselves? Plus, the Islamic media would never lie, lying is against the teachings of the Koran. You should see the fantastic stories that are taken as Allah's honest truth, such as the hundreds of American special forces being held prisoner by the Taliban, and the AQ fighting unit formed by aforesaid prisoners who converted to Islam.
I can't emphasize this enough - for these people, this is what is happening. There was a warning telephoned to all the Jews who worked in the WTC not to come to work that day.
America is conspiring with India against Pakistan in order to open another front against Islam. In truth, the Islamists have been trying to start the first Indo-Pak war of this century frantically (parliament attack, kashmir provocations) so they can depose the Musharraf regime and sieze Pakstan's nuclear weapons for their own use. And use them they will...a nuclear deterrent only works if the other guy wants to live. We're losing the information war, badly.
A similar situation existed during operation Allied Force in Serbia. Serbian citizens believe to this day that they shot down dozens of Allied aircraft, including a B-2 and several F-117s, as well as capturing a damaged stealth fighter intact (it was immediately shipped to Russia for examination, of course, which is why it's not on display at the same Serbian military museum where the fragments of Capt. O'Grady's F-16 are).
-- Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Slashdot has done this before as well
by
GoatPigSheep
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· Score: 5, Insightful
More than once Slashdot has published stories from questionable sources which turned out to be completely false. Although it's inevitable for any site that uses reader submitions to sometimes publish hoax stories as it's hard to read every submition that is sent. However I've read many stories in newspapers here (not in china) that came from sources about as or less credible than the onion. China is relatively new to the internet so I suppose they haven't figured out which sites are the joke ones yet.
I guesse we could say: Beijing Newspaper. YHBT. YHL. HAND.
-- GoatPigSheep, the 3 most important food groups
Re:Slashdot has done this before as well
by
SethJohnson
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· Score: 2
The difference is that real journalists attribute everything. Since the editor at the Chinese newspaper wasn't aware of the Onion, etc. it appears this freelance writer simply plagarized the entire story. Slashdot does not plagarize stories because it ONLY references other published articles with the exception of
Jonathan Katz's work, which very well could be plagarizing pieces appearing in the Weekly World News. I'd strongly suspect this writer won't be working with that newspaper again.
Re:Slashdot has done this before as well
by
Geek+In+Training
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· Score: 2
More than once Slashdot has published stories from questionable sources which turned out to be completely false.
I just got an IM from somebody replying to this:
HELLO MY AMERICAN FRIENDs! THIS IS JUNIS FROM AFGHANISTAN! I AM NOW ABLE TO HAVE MUCH BETTER INTERNETTING, THANKS TO THE BANDWIDTH PROVIDED BY THE GREAT AMERICAN LIBERATORS! LONG LIVE THE COMMODORE 64!
Eat your heart out, JonKatz. I still haven't seen a retraction or an apology for perpetrating that one against our collective intellect.
-- SlashSigTheorem: Humorous, Political, Critical, Constructive- If you have a.sig, someone WILL complai
Re:Slashdot has done this before as well
by
Apotsy
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· Score: 2
Although it's inevitable for any site that uses reader submitions to sometimes publish hoax stories as it's hard to read every submition that is sent.
You don't have to check every story that's sent -- just the ones that you decide to actually post. That only amounts to a handful of stories per day.
Re:Slashdot has done this before as well
by
Rogerborg
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· Score: 5, Funny
More than once Slashdot has published stories from questionable sources which turned out to be completely false
Yeah, but this is completely different! The Beijing evening news is a for-profit publication with a staff of paid professional editors, whereas Slashdot is... no, wait... what was I saying again?
-- If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Re:Slashdot has done this before as well
by
RAVasquez
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· Score: 2, Informative
Slashdot does not plagarize stories because it ONLY references other published articles with the exception of Jonathan Katz's work, which very well could be plagarizing pieces appearing in the Weekly World News.
There's no need to trash Jonathan Katz's reputation. After all, he's a professional therapist, not a journalist. "Jon Katz," perhaps?
--
---
Work, worry, consume, die. It's a wonderful life. -- Bill Griffith
Re:Slashdot has done this before as well
by
liquidsin
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· Score: 5, Funny
No, no, you were right...this IS completely different. As you said, the Beijing news is run by professional editors...
-- do not read this line twice.
How is this news for nerds?
by
MadFarmAnimalz
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Guess this will be my first trolling mod here, but I do not see what this is doing on slashdot.
I got this days ago from the mainstream media.
This is not what I expect from slashdot. Yet another testament to the need for a more democratic story acceptance system.
Re:How is this news for nerds?
by
CodeMonky
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· Score: 2
Exactly why doesn't it belong on slashdot? Because mainstream media also covered it? Because mainstream media covered it first? It certainly can't be because of the content because that absolutely fits slashdot, a story about an actual established paper printing something it read on the internet only to find out it was a spoof article. That is most definately slashdot material. Hell slashdot does it all the time.
-- --"Karma is justice without the satisfaction"
Fear. Uncertainty. Doubt. The Onion.
by
An+Onerous+Coward
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· Score: 5, Funny
I remember a hilarious letter to Readers Digest, complaining that they shouldn't be giving any publicity to avowed Satanist J.K. Rowling. The woman's source for her numerous quotes? You guessed it. She gave the URL of the story to anyone looking for further information.
The staff of Readers Digest was kind enough to point out the woman's error.
--
You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!
On the same page there was an article saying something like "sexual tension between sharon and arafat reaches breaking point" and was about them kissing. Of course maybe I'm giving them way too much credit for intelligence
I what I find even more funny, is that (according to FOX news) the paper countinues to claim that it properly followed up and checked the sources and when Fox reporters questioned them about it, they simply replied (I'm paraphrasing) "How do you know our reporters didn't make calls to confirm this story?"
Very true. Makes one wonder how many times Western news organizations have used the same jedi mind trick on people who questioned the veracity of their stories.
-- Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
They Fell For That Old Sham?
by
bgs006
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· Score: 2, Funny
Dear Chinese Reporter,
In case you were looking for more news to reprint about the stupidness that is America, here are some other leads you might want to follow: 1) America is stupid 2) No, seriously. Just put that up as your headline and your readers will believe it. Though you might get letters berating you for not being mean enough. 3) And despite that win the other day, we still suck at soccer. 4) And we're all very, very gay. 5) And completely against education, sewer systems, organized government and hygiene. 6) And we find Jay Leno to be absolutely hilarious.
If only number six weren't true. -Brandon
I don't know why they picked up the Onion story. This one's more believable.
Democracy won't help
by
tlhf
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· Score: 3, Informative
Kuro5hin.org, the proof of concept democratic group blog, has already posted this, a few days earlier than slashdot. It got voted to front page.
Kuro5hin.org, the proof of concept democratic group blog, has already posted this, a few days earlier than slashdot. It got voted to front page.
So what? Kuro5hin's "democratic group" concept is flawed. Just try to submit a story, and most times, it'll be rejected for asinine things like a typo, or maybe enough people just didn't agree with the story.
Ever hear the statement "Too many cooks spoil the broth?" That's Kuro5hin for you.
--
--
The real Raunchola isn't cool enough to have any imposters
While we're talking about the Onion...
by
CokeBear
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· Score: 5, Interesting
Not only is it funny, but also deeply insightful, even for an atheist like me.
-- Reality has a liberal bias
Lifting articles in China
by
jkastner
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· Score: 2, Informative
My girlfriend's sister is editor of Buisness China, a Shanghai based Economist publication (in English) which comes out every fortnight. She is always having to watch out for her freelancers lifting articles from other English language sources. The freelancers figure that they are so far off the beaten track they can get away with it. But they quickly find out how much she reads.
Funny Thing is...
by
Knoxvill3
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· Score: 2, Funny
I wonder how many Members of the Chinese government now have dreams of a Retractable Dome of their own. The Onion may have unwittingly kicked of a international contest between our governments.
"Nyah! Nyah! My Domes Bigger than Yooourrrs!"
Or Not.
-- ====== Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.
- Euripides
My coworkers believed the "Post Office 5 cent e-ma
by
doublem
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· Score: 3, Interesting
I still remember the damn fool local DJs reading the "Post office wants to levy a 5 cent tax on each e-mail" story as real. Most of my coworkers were in a panic and complaining bitterly. I printed up disclaimers debunking the story from the US Post Office's web site, among other locations.
Sadly, my coworkers insisted that the post office must be lying, because "They wouldn't put it on the radio if it weren't true!" (Yes, that is a real quote)
It was read on WAAF (bottom of the dung pile "rock" station) by "Mistress Carrie" for crying out loud!
And then there was the time Hillary Clinton was asked about her stance on the bill during an interview...
-- "Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
Plagarism through translation
by
SgtChaireBourne
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· Score: 2
It flows both ways, I've seen a number of books in English with material ripped straight out of Chinese books. This will happen until there are enough people reading both Chinese and Englsh sources. BTW, reading Chinese isn't as hard as you think. After all, you've learned all the nasty little icons on your desktop and productivity applications. Besides, it may be useful or essential knowledge for computing depending on how OSS development goes in China & E. Asia.
Working with some european and east european mathematics journals brought up an anecdote about a mathematician who'd made a multi-decade academic career though translating material from an east european mathematician and publishing it in the west under his own name. His day was rained on when the Iron Curtain came down and the original material became available.
-- Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
Re:Plagarism through translation
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jrp2
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· Score: 2, Funny
After all, you've learned all the nasty little icons on your desktop and productivity applications.
Speak for yourself, dude. I got this key on my keyboard (actually 2 of them right next to the "alt" keys) that have an icon I think is supposed to be a landscaping truck turned into a "just married" limo dragging a bunch of cans driven by some drunk swerving a bit. Never have been able to figure out what they are for. Press either one, nothing happens.;)
-- The only athletic sport I ever mastered was backgammon - Douglas William Jerrold
Onion founder's former comments on the issue
by
afflatus_com
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· Score: 5, Interesting
The founder of the Onion was on Jay Leno a while back and discussed the problem at length.
He said that the biggest problem was email forwards from people who consider it a news release, and in the email there is not the rest of the onion's site for context, so people don't know it is a parody.
He said the 2 that generated the most amount of letters from concerned citizens, up to that point in time, was "Chinese woman gives birth to septuplets, doesn't know which one to keep" and "New York to install infant-only dumpsters".
--
----- Cast a Cold Eye On Life, on Death Horseman, pass by --W.B. Yeats' gravestone
Re:Onion founder's former comments on the issue
by
Alsee
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· Score: 2
New York to install infant-only dumpsters
Ah, yes. I can understand how someone wouldn't realize that as humor if they weren't aware of the context.
-
-- - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
haha, stupid girls at school
by
Beowulf_Boy
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· Score: 2
There was the girl in my Chem class, we were researching experiments to do for a class project. All of a sudden, I hear "Oh my god, Bill Nye is dead, I didn't know that!" I was laughing my ass off, half the class we talking about it, and about how good of shows he had, and how sad it was, even the teacher believed it. When I walked over to see what the commotion was about, I nearly wet myself.
Needs to learn his geography
by
Peyna
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· Score: 2
Even if you believed the part about wanting to relocate, I don't think there is any chance that Congress would relocate to TORONTO: Dallas, Seattle, and Toronto have also been mentioned as long shots.
-- What?
Re:Needs to learn his geography
by
tb3
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· Score: 2, Flamebait
And why not? We've got a decent exchange rate, an amiable climate, and better beer.
Sounds Familiar ...
by
Batou
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· Score: 3, Interesting
I have a very-muched-loved-yet-altogether-nuts-over-religio n uncle that used to send out his own newsletter giving news from the Christian coalition mindset kind of thing. Used to annoy the hell out of me that he somehow thought that he assumed I wanted to be filled in and take action against evolution being taught in schools and such, but it wasn't worth the confrontation to tell him to STFU.
Well. One of these things he sent me a few years ago was about how the Harry Potter books were teaching our kids satanism and witchcraft and such. Now this thing was sent in all seriousness, with quotes from children (something about sucking Satan's "gigantic black cock", I don't quite recall). Anyway, he was dead serious that this was a problem that all "good christians" should take immediate action against.
Now I would normally just delete these things after getting a good laugh, since I really do like the guy despite this kind of evangelical nonsense. What caught my eye was the link to the article he was quoting from - it was (ta da) from The Onion. I nearly fell out of my chair at work from laughing so hard.
-- "Oh my God! The dead have risen! And they're voting Republican!"
- Bart Simpson
This makes me wonder....
by
phillymjs
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· Score: 3, Funny
Are they actually doing their own R&D, or just feverishly combing the Internet trying to find out how to make Cavorite?
~Philly
Holy Fucking Shit
by
Bonker
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· Score: 5, Interesting
As you read through it, you can just see the raw emotions in every article in that issue - it reminds me every day I look at it what that day was like.
The Holy Fucking Shit edition of The Onion was one of the finest pieces of literature serious or satirical published about the September 11 bombings. Before the HFS edition, I merely thought The Onion was funny. Afterwards, I respected The Onion.
In the middle of all the hysteria, screaming panic, and horror, The Onion *dared* to go in and examine the ridiculousness of not only what had happened but what was happening because of it.
Good work guys!
-- The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
That's what I thought too. I actually read a "critique" shortly afterwards from some dipshit who thought that the onion had changed and wasn't being as edgy as they normally are. It was a delicate situation, and they managed to make people laugh about it without being disrespectful. I had been reading the onion for years, but after that, much like you, I actually *respected* them for more than just their humour.
I'm surprised no one has pointed out how ironic this story is on/.
We're reading a story on a niche news site about a story on a popular news site about a story in a major newspaper (albeit in China) taken from a site that lampoons the news.
This happened to me as well. Several days at the beginning of last year, the Onion Article was being passed around via email some of the more religious young women at my office. The hell of it was that it had been forwarded to the 'Local Christian E-Mail Distribution Officer' by a prominent local pastor.
They *Bought* this, hook, line, and sinker.
-- The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
Not as stupid as you may think..
by
rehabdoll
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· Score: 2, Funny
Because the rest of the world would not be surprised if it were true!
Just think what news they would report if they had not blocked access to Washington Post and CNN.:-)
Guess they didn't peel the onion.
-- Will work for bandwidth
If you think the Chinese are gullible, the US is..
by
Easy2RememberNick
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· Score: 5, Funny
Well if you think the Chinese are gullible then you should watch "Talking With Americans" by Rick Mercer. Rick is a Canadian comedian who interviews Americans in the US posing as a Canadian journalist (which is he is). He interviews regular people, politicians, anyone. He'll stun them with facts like we just got indoor plumbing, paved roads, tv, the 24 hour clock...lmao and the people believe it! It's so stupid how could anyone believe it!!!
One of the Onion's greatest stories...
by
minesweeper
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· Score: 2, Funny
...was published right after the 2000 elections when we didn't know who the next president would be.
Within days of election night, The Onion came out with one of its greatest stories ever: Bush Or Gore: 'A New Era Dawns', accurately satirizing just how similar the two candidates were.
Re:One of the Onion's greatest stories...
by
adavidw
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· Score: 2, Insightful
The poster's slightly mistaken. The really funny part of this story was the fact that it was posted BEFORE the election. Late in the evening on election day we were starting to realize how prescient it really was.
-Aaron
Satire and Freedom of Speech
by
fprefect
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· Score: 3, Insightful
The thing that struck me here was not "how could they believe what they read in the Onion?", but "is there a segment of the Chinese that takes anything in print as fact?"
In our open society, we take freedom of the press to the extreme by publishing just about anything. It forces people to read news with a critical eye, which carries over to various aspects of out life. In a society where all information and editorial is controlled and filtered heavily, is it a surprise that "news" and "critical thinking" don't always go hand in hand.
I'm not trying to slight the Chinese here, I'm sure there are plenty of US Citizens who pick up the Onion and believe it as fact -- I'm sure it would confuse the heck out of my grandmother. And how many times have you seen someone repost a good April Fools joke as fact?
So yes, it's funny, but apply your critical thinking and take it in context -- that the world is full of gullible people.
--
Matt Slot / Bitwise Operator / Ambrosia Software, Inc.
Re:Satire and Freedom of Speech
by
Dephex+Twin
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· Score: 2
So yes, it's funny, but apply your critical thinking and take it in context -- that the world is full of gullible people.
Yes, and we hope that those on the more gullible end are not our journalists for major newspapers.
(That's the *real* context.)
mark
--
If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. -- Carl Sagan
Re:If you think the Chinese are gullible, the US i
by
Hydro-X
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· Score: 2, Funny
I loved the hour-long special. The best part is the Jean Poutine prank linked in the parent. Of course, Bush's reply isn't much more intelligible.
"He understands I want to make sure our relationship with our most important neighbour to the north of us is strong and we'll work closely together,"
Emphasis mine.
Congratulations Canada on preserving your national igloo!
I thought the mainstream media was going to save us from all this Internet misinformation. After all, how can we unwashed masses be informed without their help?
I think it's funny as hell that after all the crap we've heard from the media about how the Internet is a dangerous playground of falsehood and misinformation, they were taken in by a web site well known among Internet users as being a satire site.
Re:Fear. Uncertainty. Doubt. The Onion.
by
The+Mayor
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· Score: 4, Informative
The British are responsible for naming it "soccer". Aparantly, in the 1800s, many games were known as "football"--it referred to almost any sport played with a ball and two teams. The Football Association decided to codify the rules of what Americans call "soccer". Through a twist of abbreviations and name changes, the name got translated into "soccer" (the "soc" was from the word "association", and I guess "soccer" was easier to say than "the Football Association Football". To this day, you'll still find "soccer" stores (using that name) in the United Kingdom.
In case you hadn't noticed, rugby is actually a shortened name for Rugby Football. Football refers to lots of sports. The word "soccer" comes from the UK (I heard this on a BBC program about the sport). The US retained the name to prevent confusion from the other sport Americans played known as "football". Meanwhile, the rest of the world changed the other "football" sports to "rugby" (or any of a number of other names--the name really referred to hundreds of sports in the 1800s).
Since the UK invented football/soccer, and then codified its rules and named it "soccer", then the Americans can claim to be correct in calling it "soccer".
Here's a link to the origins of football/soccer. I can't find a reference as to when the name was assigned. You'll have to take my word on it (or do your own research). But the name definitely did not originate in the U.S.
-- --Be human.
We are a nation of red-ass baboons...
by
phillymjs
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· Score: 3, Interesting
...because we need coffee cups that says "Caution, contents HOT!" and commercials that have "Don't try this yourself" at the bottom of the screen as the SUV being advertised drives vertically up the side of a skyscraper and parks on the roof. In another few years, they'll probably have to interrupt movies every 15 minutes with a slide of text bearing a disclaimer that says, "The events you are watching are not really happening, but are fictional." Actually, this has already happened once, in 1983.
~Philly
Re:We are a nation of red-ass baboons...
by
Lord+Ender
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· Score: 2
"we need coffee cups that says [sic]..."
Listen, buddy. we don't NEED all that. People try to sue corporations, so they put it there to protect themselves from 1 lawsuit. But the society does not need those warnings.
-- A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
Re:We are a nation of red-ass baboons...
by
Dephex+Twin
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· Score: 2
And, to add to that, even the people who are "victims" to those things that lead to such disclaimers don't even need them, in many cases. I'm sure the lady who scorched her crotch with coffee in her car knew full well that coffee is fucking hot and that she probably shouldn't hold it inbetween her legs in a moving vehicle. Then when she scorched her crotch she became very angry... but who does she blame? Of course not herself. I know! The McDonald's cup didn't say "Do not hold me in your crotch or I will burn it to hell", so I can sue them and get millions out of it, too!
But stupid disclaimers like that keep greedy/vengeful people from filing those kinds of lawsuits by removing the ambiguity.
So really it is merely an indication that our system of law is too welcoming of stupid lawsuits.
mark
--
If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. -- Carl Sagan
Word Choice for Title!
by
ArcadeNut
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· Score: 5, Informative
Not to be picky here, but they were not "SPOOFED" by The Onion, they were "DUPED".
If they were Spoofed then you would have seen an article on The Onion about Beijing and not an article about some news station in Beijing using a story on The Onion.
-- Visit the Arcade Restoration Workshop @ http://www.arcaderestoration.com
Not to be picky here, but they were not "SPOOFED" by The Onion, they were "DUPED".
Classically speaking -- in dictionary terms -- you are correct, sir. However, this being a Nerd site, CmdrTaco was apparently using Geekspeak. In this jargon, "spoof" means "to fool", derived from the ability of hackers to create false email headers; this technique being referred to as "spoofing", with the resultant back-formation of "spoof". Linguistically speaking, the reversal of the meaning of a term is an important part of the creation of a sub-language; the example that springs to mind just now is the early-'70's use in the African-American culture of the term "bad" to mean "very good".
And, to be even more exacting, they weren't "duped" -- the use of "dupe" implies a conscious motive toward the Beijing newspaper on the part of "The Onion", which did not exist. "Fooled" is probably the appropriate word to use here.
-- DNA is a Turing machine. You, however, being dynamic and emergent, are not.
Do you actually believe that crap?
by
RelliK
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· Score: 3, Funny
Bush Sr. Apologizes To Son For Funding Bin Laden In '80s
MIDLAND, TX-- Former president George Bush issued an apology to his son Monday for advocating the CIA's mid-'80s funding of Osama bin Laden, who at the time was resisting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. "I'm sorry, son," Bush told President George W. Bush. "We thought it was a good idea at the time because he was part of a group fighting communism in Central Asia. We called them 'freedom fighters' back then. I know it sounds weird. You sort of had to be there." Bush is still deliberating over whether to tell his son about the whole supporting-Saddam Hussein-against-Iran thing.
-- ___
If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
Having just started up one of these...
by
TellarHK
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· Score: 2
Some friends and I just created a parody news site the other day. We're not really complete enough to start advertising, but that won't stop us from mentioning it once in a while, like, say, here.
But what does amuse me is that the line between real journalism and parody has gotten a lot slimmer in the recent years. Ever since The Daily Show, it's almost seemed better to get your news from someplace like that than a traditional boring newscast. The Daily Show seems to give accurate enough basis for the parody stuff they do, just twisted. Of course, the Domination News Network that myself and some friends created is a little more like The Onion, with the user community twist. I'm almost afraid now, that someone will take DNN seriously someday. Particularly since the "basis" for it is global domination by a conspiracy that's decided to go semi-public.
I keep wondering if I should be proud to get on any watch lists with some of the articles we may post someday?:)
> It was read on WAAF (bottom of the dung pile "rock" station) by "Mistress Carrie" for crying out loud!
As if there was something better to listen to in Boston? Come on.
Re:If you think the Chinese are gullible, the US i
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Hydro-X
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· Score: 2, Informative
For some reason taste in music escapes most of the population out here.
Still, WAAF is OK on the weekends. I just wish they'd shut the DJs up and play some $#@ Music for a change. MTV (The Shiny Things Network*) has more music these days than the Boston stations.
* "After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network"
-- "Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
Re:If you think the Chinese are gullible, the US i
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Elwood+P+Dowd
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· Score: 2
And of course, there aren't any ignorant Canadians. If you search for stupid people, you will find them. You probably won't have to look far in any nation. I always felt that a Canadian's opinion of American intelligence was much more revealing about the Canadian in question than Americans in general.
--
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
Re:If you think the Chinese are gullible, the US i
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LadyLucky
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· Score: 2
The Dutch have a fantastic program, which takes the piss of tele-evangelists.
He asks to go on their show, and after a while, asks to talk some Dutch to the viewers back home. He says things along the lines of "This is a con-man, he's trying to steal your money..." and so forth.
To be a scientist...
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joshyc
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· Score: 2, Interesting
It's probably just the massive amount of caffeine circulating through my system right now but this quote made me laugh for a solid 5 minutes:
"To be a scientist, you have to learn all this weird stuff, like how many molecules are in a proton,..."
Taken from: http://www.theonion.com/onion3821/science_hard.htm l
Oh well, back to studying for chem.
What was the punchline...?
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Mulletproof
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· Score: 2
Hahahaha!!! Hohohohho!...Um, and that quote was? While I enjoyed the rant about your 3rd cousins uncles brothers religious news letter, your post lacks any sort of value without said link.
"Knock Knock" "Who's there?" "Um..." "Errr..." "Uh..." "Damn. I forgot, but trust me, it was funny."
Have an american football player run into a rugby player. See which one gets up.
The padding and protective gear isn't because they're wimps, but because they're a lot larger than their rugby counterparts. Getting hit by someone that size tends to break things (such as ribs, knees, arms . ..)
Does anyone remenmber who wrote the story about combat rules football?
hawk
Re:If you think the Chinese are gullible, the US i
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LadyLucky
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· Score: 2
Re:Artist's Rendering of New Capital
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M-G
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Yep. In fact, the St. Louis Post Dispatch even ran this article on the op-ed page a couple of weeks ago with the illustration. So the freelance writer for the Beijing paper could have actually stumbled across it in the Post. Now, the Post fully credited The Onion for it, but it's possible that if this guy did see it in the Post, he may not have caught that.
What makes it all funnier than shit is that the Post has been strongly backing public financing of the ballpark, and they claim it has nothing to do with their parent company having an ownership stake in the team.....so for them to actually print this parody was suprising.
Slashdot Mirror
At least they weren't fooled by stories like "This Just In: Bill Gates Buys Evil From Satan" or "Death Star Opens Day Care Center."
I can imagine them running through the streets of Beijing saying "Look at the size of that thing!" and "That's no moon!"
"Chances of RHIC-induced Armageddon are exceedingly rare, but... you never know." - MIT Physicist Bob Jaffe
I'd actually like to see someone take the Onion's kids explanation of why the Sept. terrorist attacks happened seriously.
One of these days/I'm going to cut you into little pieces.
On the radio lastnight as I was driving home.and almost crashed...
but anyways I guess this just shows that you have to choose a source carefully.. I mean who really needs a new capital with a retracting dome and stadium seating?
The greatest right given is the right to be wrong...
Mr T to pity fool. Don.
Slashdot - The Home of the Tortured Analogy
In case anyone's interested, the Onion article is here! (No goatse.cx links, sorry!)
TOTALLY believable!
"Why did they cancel my favorite Sci-Fi show? I downloaded ALL the episodes!"
In my high school...
Teacher: Gambit, you didn't write this!
Gambit: uh, well...
Teacher: You COPIED this, didn't you?
Gambit: Well, maybe a little...
Teacher: That's PLAGIARISM! Where do you think you're going to end up if you just copy other people's article??
Gambit: Hopefully on Slashdot?
Watch the Teaser Trailer for "The Lightning Thief" Her
If you read it on the internet, you know its true!
(Disclaimer: Yes someone else probably said it first. But SA was the one that taught me it)
Think nothing is impossible? Try slamming a revolving door.
Another online news story about this is here.
CowboyNeal, Q.E.D. 20%
a^2+b^2=c^2 17%
algore 0.41%
(source:slashdot.org)
More than once Slashdot has published stories from questionable sources which turned out to be completely false. Although it's inevitable for any site that uses reader submitions to sometimes publish hoax stories as it's hard to read every submition that is sent. However I've read many stories in newspapers here (not in china) that came from sources about as or less credible than the onion. China is relatively new to the internet so I suppose they haven't figured out which sites are the joke ones yet.
I guesse we could say: Beijing Newspaper. YHBT. YHL. HAND.
GoatPigSheep, the 3 most important food groups
Guess this will be my first trolling mod here, but I do not see what this is doing on slashdot.
I got this days ago from the mainstream media.
This is not what I expect from slashdot. Yet another testament to the need for a more democratic story acceptance system.
Blearf. Blearf, I say.
I remember a hilarious letter to Readers Digest, complaining that they shouldn't be giving any publicity to avowed Satanist J.K. Rowling. The woman's source for her numerous quotes? You guessed it. She gave the URL of the story to anyone looking for further information.
The staff of Readers Digest was kind enough to point out the woman's error.
You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!
On the same page there was an article saying something like "sexual tension between sharon and arafat reaches breaking point" and was about them kissing. Of course maybe I'm giving them way too much credit for intelligence
After all, the poll was about the most popular mathematical al-gore-rithm.
--
If you moderate this, then your children will be next.
I what I find even more funny, is that (according to FOX news) the paper countinues to claim that it properly followed up and checked the sources and when Fox reporters questioned them about it, they simply replied (I'm paraphrasing) "How do you know our reporters didn't make calls to confirm this story?"
Business News and Resources: www.usasource.net
Dear Chinese Reporter,
In case you were looking for more news to reprint about the stupidness that is America, here are some other leads you might want to follow:
1) America is stupid
2) No, seriously. Just put that up as your headline and your readers will believe it. Though you might get letters berating you for not being mean enough.
3) And despite that win the other day, we still suck at soccer.
4) And we're all very, very gay.
5) And completely against education, sewer systems, organized government and hygiene.
6) And we find Jay Leno to be absolutely hilarious.
If only number six weren't true.
-Brandon
I don't know why they picked up the Onion story. This one's more believable.
Kuro5hin.org, the proof of concept democratic group blog, has already posted this, a few days earlier than slashdot. It got voted to front page.
tlhf
xxx
http://www.theonion.com/onion3734/god_clarifies_do nt_kill.html
Not only is it funny, but also deeply insightful, even for an atheist like me.
Reality has a liberal bias
My girlfriend's sister is editor of Buisness China, a Shanghai based Economist publication (in English) which comes out every fortnight. She is always having to watch out for her freelancers lifting articles from other English language sources. The freelancers figure that they are so far off the beaten track they can get away with it. But they quickly find out how much she reads.
I wonder how many Members of the Chinese government now have dreams of a Retractable Dome of their own. The Onion may have unwittingly kicked of a international contest between our governments.
"Nyah! Nyah! My Domes Bigger than Yooourrrs!"
Or Not.
======
Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish. - Euripides
I still remember the damn fool local DJs reading the "Post office wants to levy a 5 cent tax on each e-mail" story as real. Most of my coworkers were in a panic and complaining bitterly. I printed up disclaimers debunking the story from the US Post Office's web site, among other locations.
Sadly, my coworkers insisted that the post office must be lying, because "They wouldn't put it on the radio if it weren't true!" (Yes, that is a real quote)
It was read on WAAF (bottom of the dung pile "rock" station) by "Mistress Carrie" for crying out loud!
And then there was the time Hillary Clinton was asked about her stance on the bill during an interview...
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
Working with some european and east european mathematics journals brought up an anecdote about a mathematician who'd made a multi-decade academic career though translating material from an east european mathematician and publishing it in the west under his own name. His day was rained on when the Iron Curtain came down and the original material became available.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
The founder of the Onion was on Jay Leno a while back and discussed the problem at length.
He said that the biggest problem was email forwards from people who consider it a news release, and in the email there is not the rest of the onion's site for context, so people don't know it is a parody.
He said the 2 that generated the most amount of letters from concerned citizens, up to that point in time, was "Chinese woman gives birth to septuplets, doesn't know which one to keep" and "New York to install infant-only dumpsters".
-----
Cast a Cold Eye
On Life, on Death
Horseman, pass by
--W.B. Yeats' gravestone
There was the girl in my Chem class,
we were researching experiments to do for a class project. All of a sudden, I hear "Oh my god, Bill Nye is dead, I didn't know that!" I was laughing my ass off, half the class we talking about it, and about how good of shows he had, and how sad it was, even the teacher believed it. When I walked over to see what the commotion was about, I nearly wet myself.
Even if you believed the part about wanting to relocate, I don't think there is any chance that Congress would relocate to TORONTO: Dallas, Seattle, and Toronto have also been mentioned as long shots.
What?
I have a very-muched-loved-yet-altogether-nuts-over-religio n uncle that used to send out his own newsletter giving news from the Christian coalition mindset kind of thing. Used to annoy the hell out of me that he somehow thought that he assumed I wanted to be filled in and take action against evolution being taught in schools and such, but it wasn't worth the confrontation to tell him to STFU.
Well. One of these things he sent me a few years ago was about how the Harry Potter books were teaching our kids satanism and witchcraft and such. Now this thing was sent in all seriousness, with quotes from children (something about sucking Satan's "gigantic black cock", I don't quite recall). Anyway, he was dead serious that this was a problem that all "good christians" should take immediate action against.
Now I would normally just delete these things after getting a good laugh, since I really do like the guy despite this kind of evangelical nonsense. What caught my eye was the link to the article he was quoting from - it was (ta da) from The Onion. I nearly fell out of my chair at work from laughing so hard.
"Oh my God! The dead have risen! And they're voting Republican!" - Bart Simpson
...about China's space program and their wish to land on the moon by 2010:
Are they actually doing their own R&D, or just feverishly combing the Internet trying to find out how to make Cavorite?
~Philly
As you read through it, you can just see the raw emotions in every article in that issue - it reminds me every day I look at it what that day was like.
The Holy Fucking Shit edition of The Onion was one of the finest pieces of literature serious or satirical published about the September 11 bombings. Before the HFS edition, I merely thought The Onion was funny. Afterwards, I respected The Onion.
In the middle of all the hysteria, screaming panic, and horror, The Onion *dared* to go in and examine the ridiculousness of not only what had happened but what was happening because of it.
Good work guys!
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
I'm surprised no one has pointed out how ironic this story is on /.
We're reading a story on a niche news site about a story on a popular news site about a story in a major newspaper (albeit in China) taken from a site that lampoons the news.
My Blog: http://nic.dreamhost.com/
This happened to me as well. Several days at the beginning of last year, the Onion Article was being passed around via email some of the more religious young women at my office. The hell of it was that it had been forwarded to the 'Local Christian E-Mail Distribution Officer' by a prominent local pastor.
They *Bought* this, hook, line, and sinker.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
Because the rest of the world would not be surprised if it were true!
They probably get their English lessons from Herbert Kornfeld.h tml
http://www.theonion.com/archive/archive_kornfeld.
I really hate Dan Patrick.
Just think what news they would report if they had not blocked access to Washington Post and CNN. :-)
Guess they didn't peel the onion.
Will work for bandwidth
Well if you think the Chinese are gullible then you should watch "Talking With Americans" by Rick Mercer. Rick is a Canadian comedian who interviews Americans in the US posing as a Canadian journalist (which is he is). He interviews regular people, politicians, anyone. He'll stun them with facts like we just got indoor plumbing, paved roads, tv, the 24 hour clock...lmao and the people believe it! It's so stupid how could anyone believe it!!!
here
and here
Within days of election night, The Onion came out with one of its greatest stories ever: Bush Or Gore: 'A New Era Dawns', accurately satirizing just how similar the two candidates were.
The thing that struck me here was not "how could they believe what they read in the Onion?", but "is there a segment of the Chinese that takes anything in print as fact?"
In our open society, we take freedom of the press to the extreme by publishing just about anything. It forces people to read news with a critical eye, which carries over to various aspects of out life. In a society where all information and editorial is controlled and filtered heavily, is it a surprise that "news" and "critical thinking" don't always go hand in hand.
I'm not trying to slight the Chinese here, I'm sure there are plenty of US Citizens who pick up the Onion and believe it as fact -- I'm sure it would confuse the heck out of my grandmother. And how many times have you seen someone repost a good April Fools joke as fact?
So yes, it's funny, but apply your critical thinking and take it in context -- that the world is full of gullible people.
Matt Slot / Bitwise Operator / Ambrosia Software, Inc.
I loved the hour-long special. The best part is the Jean Poutine prank linked in the parent. Of course, Bush's reply isn't much more intelligible.
"He understands I want to make sure our relationship with our most important neighbour to the north of us is strong and we'll work closely together,"
Emphasis mine.
Congratulations Canada on preserving your national igloo!
I thought the mainstream media was going to save us from all this Internet misinformation. After all, how can we unwashed masses be informed without their help?
I think it's funny as hell that after all the crap we've heard from the media about how the Internet is a dangerous playground of falsehood and misinformation, they were taken in by a web site well known among Internet users as being a satire site.
The British are responsible for naming it "soccer". Aparantly, in the 1800s, many games were known as "football"--it referred to almost any sport played with a ball and two teams. The Football Association decided to codify the rules of what Americans call "soccer". Through a twist of abbreviations and name changes, the name got translated into "soccer" (the "soc" was from the word "association", and I guess "soccer" was easier to say than "the Football Association Football". To this day, you'll still find "soccer" stores (using that name) in the United Kingdom.
In case you hadn't noticed, rugby is actually a shortened name for Rugby Football. Football refers to lots of sports. The word "soccer" comes from the UK (I heard this on a BBC program about the sport). The US retained the name to prevent confusion from the other sport Americans played known as "football". Meanwhile, the rest of the world changed the other "football" sports to "rugby" (or any of a number of other names--the name really referred to hundreds of sports in the 1800s).
Since the UK invented football/soccer, and then codified its rules and named it "soccer", then the Americans can claim to be correct in calling it "soccer".
Here's a link to the origins of football/soccer. I can't find a reference as to when the name was assigned. You'll have to take my word on it (or do your own research). But the name definitely did not originate in the U.S.
--Be human.
...because we need coffee cups that says "Caution, contents HOT!" and commercials that have "Don't try this yourself" at the bottom of the screen as the SUV being advertised drives vertically up the side of a skyscraper and parks on the roof. In another few years, they'll probably have to interrupt movies every 15 minutes with a slide of text bearing a disclaimer that says, "The events you are watching are not really happening, but are fictional." Actually, this has already happened once, in 1983.
~Philly
If they were Spoofed then you would have seen an article on The Onion about Beijing and not an article about some news station in Beijing using a story on The Onion.
Visit the Arcade Restoration Workshop @ http://www.arcaderestoration.com
Bush Sr. Apologizes To Son For Funding Bin Laden In '80s MIDLAND, TX-- Former president George Bush issued an apology to his son Monday for advocating the CIA's mid-'80s funding of Osama bin Laden, who at the time was resisting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. "I'm sorry, son," Bush told President George W. Bush. "We thought it was a good idea at the time because he was part of a group fighting communism in Central Asia. We called them 'freedom fighters' back then. I know it sounds weird. You sort of had to be there." Bush is still deliberating over whether to tell his son about the whole supporting-Saddam Hussein-against-Iran thing.
___
If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
Some friends and I just created a parody news site the other day. We're not really complete enough to start advertising, but that won't stop us from mentioning it once in a while, like, say, here.
:)
:)
But what does amuse me is that the line between real journalism and parody has gotten a lot slimmer in the recent years. Ever since The Daily Show, it's almost seemed better to get your news from someplace like that than a traditional boring newscast. The Daily Show seems to give accurate enough basis for the parody stuff they do, just twisted. Of course, the Domination News Network that myself and some friends created is a little more like The Onion, with the user community twist. I'm almost afraid now, that someone will take DNN seriously someday. Particularly since the "basis" for it is global domination by a conspiracy that's decided to go semi-public.
I keep wondering if I should be proud to get on any watch lists with some of the articles we may post someday?
Domination News Network
Suggestions for site improvement are always accepted, by the way. And submissions for content just as much so.
My own pointless vanity vintage computing page
> It was read on WAAF (bottom of the dung pile "rock" station) by "Mistress Carrie" for crying out loud! As if there was something better to listen to in Boston? Come on.
Since when does Greenland neighbor the US?
You got me there.
For some reason taste in music escapes most of the population out here.
Still, WAAF is OK on the weekends. I just wish they'd shut the DJs up and play some $#@ Music for a change. MTV (The Shiny Things Network*) has more music these days than the Boston stations.
* "After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network"
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
And of course, there aren't any ignorant Canadians. If you search for stupid people, you will find them. You probably won't have to look far in any nation. I always felt that a Canadian's opinion of American intelligence was much more revealing about the Canadian in question than Americans in general.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
He asks to go on their show, and after a while, asks to talk some Dutch to the viewers back home. He says things along the lines of "This is a con-man, he's trying to steal your money..." and so forth.
It is very funny to watch.
dominionrd.blogspot.com - Restaurants on
It's probably just the massive amount of caffeine circulating through my system right now but this quote made me laugh for a solid 5 minutes:
m l
"To be a scientist, you have to learn all this weird stuff, like how many molecules are in a proton,..."
Taken from: http://www.theonion.com/onion3821/science_hard.ht
Oh well, back to studying for chem.
Hahahaha!!! Hohohohho! ...Um, and that quote was? While I enjoyed the rant about your 3rd cousins uncles brothers religious news letter, your post lacks any sort of value without said link.
"Knock Knock"
"Who's there?"
"Um..."
"Errr..."
"Uh..."
"Damn. I forgot, but trust me, it was funny."
Whatever.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
Holy crap, do you know the name of this program? I'd love to read more about it.
The padding and protective gear isn't because they're wimps, but because they're a lot larger than their rugby counterparts. Getting hit by someone that size tends to break things (such as ribs, knees, arms . .
Does anyone remenmber who wrote the story about combat rules football?
hawk
No, sorry, i forgot it.
dominionrd.blogspot.com - Restaurants on
Yep. In fact, the St. Louis Post Dispatch even ran this article on the op-ed page a couple of weeks ago with the illustration. So the freelance writer for the Beijing paper could have actually stumbled across it in the Post. Now, the Post fully credited The Onion for it, but it's possible that if this guy did see it in the Post, he may not have caught that.
What makes it all funnier than shit is that the Post has been strongly backing public financing of the ballpark, and they claim it has nothing to do with their parent company having an ownership stake in the team.....so for them to actually print this parody was suprising.