This is a story is truly funny.
The Onion, a satire of a real news organization, published a funny story that claimed “Gallup Poll: Rural Whites Prefer Ahmadinejad To Obama“. The joke is obvious, you get it of course, the Iranian president Abmadinejad is well-known as a cretinous lunatic who spouts complete bullshit during his various trips to the UN that only those who are truly mentally deranged or completely brainwashed would think such a story was actually true. It is a very obvious parody …
CHARLESTON, WV—According to the results of a Gallup poll released Monday, the overwhelming majority of rural white Americans said they would rather vote for Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than U.S. president Barack Obama. “I like him better,” said West Virginia resident Dale Swiderski, who, along with 77 percent of rural Caucasian voters, confirmed he would much rather go to a baseball game or have a beer with Ahmadinejad, a man who has repeatedly denied the Holocaust and has had numerous political prisoners executed, than spend time with Obama.
Well guess what?
The Iranian news agency FARS picked it up and ran it as a real news story. The fact that it was satire completely eluded these loons and they went as far as quoting the Onion story more or less word for word. Now least you are curious, FARS claims to be “Iran’s leading independent news agency”, akin to say the Washing Post or USA Today (yea right), but is in reality tied closely to the current regime, so is perhaps more akin to “Pravda” doing the height of the soviet era, and strikes me as an organization that is more interested in propaganda with facts as an optional after-thought.
The Onion loved it of course and have amended their article with …
For more on this story: Please visit our Iranian subsidiary organization,Fars
I do ponder the thought that somebody inside FARS did actually know the Onion was a spoof and simply pumped the story into the system anyway to expose them to some ridicule, its what I’d do if I worked there, and then simply plead ignorance later.
Anyway, FARS has now issued an apology … and yet … they also kept digging by claiming …
“Although it does not justify our mistake, we do believe that if a free opinion poll is conducted in the US, a majority of Americans would prefer anyone outside the US political system to President Barack Obama and American statesmen,”
… but I note that they are no longer claiming that Ahmadinejad would be the man to do that.
On a slightly more serious topic, laughing at and mocking them is a far better alternative than bombing them. Some do still want to bomb them, but I maintain the stance that such a move will not be necessary because the sanctions are working really well. Even this week their currency the Rial has been radically devalued, basic goods are in short supply, and crime is rising. Given a choice between nuclear ambitions and the basics of life, I suspect most ordinary Iranian’s would be happy to walk away from the insane option.