When The Onion Attacks
flying1368
Published
10/04/2012
People and organizations being duped by the fake news organization.
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Incensed Republican Congressman John Fleming of Louisiana took to Facebook earlier this year, reposting the Onion article headlined Planned Parenthood Opens 8 billion Abortionplex, snidely referring to the plan as abortion by the wholesale. -
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A Danish television station sounded the alarm in reaction to The Onions Sean Penn Demands to Know What Ahole Took SeanPenngmail.com article, even running a poll among the nations viewers asking their opinion on the dire matter. -
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Bangladeshi newspapers The Daily Banab Zanab and The New Nation were each duped by an Onion story that said U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong had finally been convinced that the legendary lunar landings which he helped commandeer were indeed staged for American TV audiences. We didnt know The Onion was not a real news site, editor Hasanuzzuman Khan stated in his apology. -
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Iranian news agency Fars was red-faced after falling for an Onion article that claimed a recent poll on the upcoming U.S. presidential elections indicated an overwhelming majority of rural white Americans would rather vote for Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than President Obama. -
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The Mecklenburg County VA Republican party thought theyd struck muck-racking gold last month when they reposted an Onion article to Facebook claiming President Obamas 19-year-old son made a rare appearance at the DNC. How come we never heard of this one, the pages genius investigative reporter asks. -
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Back in 2002, The Beijing Evening News reprinted parts of an Onion article claiming U.S. Congress had threatened to move out of Washington D.C. unless a sleeker, more modern Capitol was built. If we want to stay competitive, we need to upgrade, House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt was quoted as saying. Look at the British Parliament. Look at the Vatican. Without modern facilities, they've been having big problems attracting top talent. -
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The California Parenting Institute, a nonprofit advocacy group, was flooded with phone calls in 2011 after The Onion ran an article purporting that the organization had released a study which showed sadly that every style of parenting inevitably causes children to grow into profoundly unhappy adults, unprepared to deal with lifes difficulties. -
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Hysterical religious groups seized upon a fictitious quote from a fictitious little girl printed in a 2008 Onion article which suggested that the Harry Potter book series had turned her off from Sunday school and on to Satanism and other black magics. Google: Jesus died because he was weak and stupid for a clearer glimpse of the insanity. -
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In 2011, a montage of Tiger Beat covers accompanying a Times article about the longstanding teen-girl fan mag included one which had been Photoshopped by The Onion to include President Obamas face among other more teen-appropriate idols such as the Jonas Brothers. The Times later humbly issued a correction. -
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In 2004, MSNBC host Deborah Norville stated on her broadcast that a new study conducted by the Onion, unfortunately for Norville and her writers said that 58 percent of all physical exercises performed in the U.S. the previous year were performed on television. For instance, Norville said, of the 3.5 billion sit-ups done in 2003, two million and thirty thousand of them were done on exercise shows on Lifetime or one of the ESPN channels. -
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In an Internet wildfire that has been likened to Orson Welles 1938 War of the Worlds radio broadcast hysteria, a video made by The Onion News in 2008 in which an irate congressman, John Haller PA, seems to hint at President Obamas classified plans for martial law, continued to spread more than three years later with many concerned read: paranoid citizens taking to where else? Facebook to voice their concerns -
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Panic broke out in Washington D.C. in 2011 after The Onion broke news on Twitter of gunfire inside the Capitol and a hostage situation involving 12 children and armed congressmen. The Onion tweets continued throughout the day despite an investigation by Capitol Police, with many saying the satirical paper had gone too far. -
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One would assume that FOX news would be able to tell proper journalism from satire. One cant be so sure though of their website FoxNation.com after the site reposted an Onion article titled Frustrated Obama Sends Nation Rambling 75,000-word E-Mail in which the president is described as having purportedly sent out a dense, unpunctuated, paragraph-less stream-of-consciousness rant revealing his deep frustrations as commander in chief. -
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In 1998, Fred Phelps, creator of the notorious anti-homosexual website, cited an Onion cover story titled 98 Homosexual Recruitment Drive Nearing Goal as proof of an ever-growing gay conspiracy. Phelps followers who clicked the link were sent back to the Onions website, which should have spelled it out that the story was a spoof. Unfortunately, though, many of the homophobic paranoid still didnt get the joke. -
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In 2011, notoriously bigoted anti-gay Oklahoma State Representative Sally Kern needed to look further into an Onion report that the Vatican had softened its stance on gay marriage after supposedly spending time with a fabulous gay couple, Tony and Craig, as evidenced in this Facebook screen grab. -
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In 2002, The Battle Creek Enquirer, in Battle Creek, Michigan, dispatched a four-paragraph release to news organizations in the area which stated that Al-Qaeda had infiltrated local telemarketing agencies, and for local residents to be on their guard for members making phone solicitations for vacation-home rentals, long-distance phone service, magazine subscriptions, and a vast array of other products and services. -
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This post was quickly taken down.
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