In 2012 The Onion announced its decision to name Kim Jong Un the “sexiest man alive” for his “devastatingly handsome, round face, his boyish charm, and his strong, sturdy frame.”
Former Malaysian top cop thinks ‘The Onion’ is real, US government must held to account for it
Over the weekend, ex-IGP Musa Hassan took to Twitter to offer earnest praise for the site’s 10-month-old, very-much tongue-in-cheek story “CIA Issues Posthumous Apology After New Evidence Clears Osama Bin Laden of Involvement in 9/11 Attacks.”
“Our organization acted in haste and without full knowledge, and in doing so, took the life of a loving husband, father, businessman, and highly effective community organizer,” the story (falsely) quotes CIA Director Gina Haspel as saying. “We understand there is nothing we can do or say will bring Osama back, but we hope the bin Laden family will accept restitution of $18 million in recognition of their pain and suffering. No one deserves to endure what you have been through.”
Ex-IGP Musa Hassan tweeted out the link to The Onion story, apparently confusing it for actual news.
When followers gently suggested that failing to distinguish satire from real news may diminish the prestige of the Malaysian Royal Police, he felt forced to stick to his proverbial guns, saying “The Onion should deny the story, or the US Govt should denounce The Onion, otherwise America is spreading fake news to the world!!!”
Things pretty much snowballed from there, as more users tried to point out the error of ex-IGP’s ways, and the ex-IGP himself climbed ever higher on his increasingly wobbly high horse, hitting out against “irresponsible journalism spreading fake news!!!”
The furor was such that Malaysia’s own homegrown satire site, The Tapir Times, quickly published their own take on the embarrassing revelation that the nation’s former head of police didn’t understand satire, irony, or a simple explanation of both.
According to the The Tapir Times‘ own “CIA source”: “Once it was revealed the former Malaysian police chief didn’t know all you need is a pulse and a website to produce silly online news, he was no longer considered a potential mastermind behind any ongoing CIA and FBI investigations.”
https://sg.yahoo.com/news/former-top-cop-thinks-onion-090819348.html
