Beijing Newspaper Retreats, Apologizes for Capitol Gaffe
"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."
Here's my post on the original gaffe. Found the retraction story on karlo.org.
Update:
Ennis sent this email exchange to me on the subject. Since I don't read Chinese I'll have to take their word on the content of these links:
From: David K________
For better or worse, the Chinese are not even close to the first to have taken the Onion too seriously. An example from Wired:
"A recent cover story, '98 HOMOSEXUAL-RECRUITMENT DRIVE NEARING GOAL was picked up by Fred Phelps, architect of the notorious God Hates Fags Web site, who listed the article as proof of a gay conspiracy."
From: Ben R_______
Subject: RE: what's chinese for "satire"
Thanks for that point, David. It should be kept in mind, too, that it's not a question of Chinese people not understanding satire, of which they have a rich tradition.
Rather, we're talking about a stodgy state-run newspaper trying hilariously to acknowledge a mistake while making it look as though it was the fault of a dastardly, irresponsible U.S. paper.
Beijing Evening News's "correction" talks in this serious tone about how it went and did follow-up interviews with congressional officials, etc. ...
Here, a Chinese online journal ridicules the Beijing Evening News for making an ass of itself twice.
| Journalism |
