Mistaken Onion

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/09/2012930164031212587.html

This article discusses briefly how an Iranian news agency, Fars, republished an article in the satirical magazine The Onion as if the article was a real news story. The republished article was one which said that opinion polls in the U.S. would rather have anybody in office, including Ahmadinejad, over President Obama. Even more hilarious than the blunder is the supposition that if there were opinion polls taken of rural whites in the U.S., they would actually prefer Ahmadinejad. The editor of Fars made this assertion.

This article caught my attention for a variety of reasons. Firstly, I love the fact that this Al Jazeera article is about an original article that was republished. Basically, it's an article in an article in an article. Secondly, something that actually has significant meaning is the cultural discrepancy between the west and the east. China's Beijing Evening News made a similar blunder by treating an Onion article as if it was reality. I think that satirical pieces are much more commonplace in the west than the east, as well as sarcasm and the rich use of irony. Perhaps these cultural differences are partly caused by the difference between democratic nations and those that are not democratic. Usually satires are against the particular social and political structure in place, and if you are not allowed to question those things in certain countries than there would be no such thing as satire.

Jon Kingzette