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Subscribe to RSSIsrael's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for a firm deadline for Iran to halt its nuclear program, using a simple drawing to warn the UN that Iran will soon reach the point of no return in its development of nuclear weapons. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.
An Iranian news agency issued a bizarre apology on Monday for citing a spoof story about President Barack Obama from satirical newspaper, The Onion, as fact.
Fars, the state-backed news source linked to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), admitted mistakenly republishing an article that claimed rural Americans preferred Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Obama.
The spoof article mentioned a supposed opinion poll finding that 77 percent of rural Caucasian voters "would 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."
Fars reproduced the article on its website on Friday alongside its usual stories about advances in Iranian military technology and condemnation of Israel. The Iranian version omitted The Onion's description of Ahmadinejad as "a man who has repeatedly denied the Holocaust and has had numerous political prisoners executed." Fars appeared to have taken the story down by about 1 p.m. ET on Friday.
In a statement on its website on Monday, Fars acknowledged the error – but also listed a string of blunders by Western media outlets including the New York Times and the BBC.
"All media, at least those you know like the BBC, CNN, etc., have had many goofs," the statement said.
It also said that it still believed the Onion story was true.
"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," it quoted its own un-named editor-in-chief as saying.
Iran news agency cites Onion story as fact
The statement added: "[Fars] makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of its reports, however very occasionally mistakes do happen."
The statement cited an April 2011 error by the New York Times in which it accidentally republished a spoof image from The Onion in an article about teen magazine, Tiger Beat.
It also cited other "embarrassing blunders over the years" by the BBC, reproducing a list -- originally published by the Daily Telegraph – including an incident in which a weather forecaster was caught on-air flipping the bird to a producer.
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Obviously the Iranian government knows nothing about middle America.
No one prefets them unless the other choices are Raul & Fidel Castro, Assad, Kim Il Jung the III. Even Putin and the Chinese communists are better. Their own people hate them. Liars and psychos. Religious dictators with no morals or ethics. Dictators. Liars. That's all they are and that's all they will ever be.
That one of the main problem with the Middle East. They just do not have a clue about Western freedoms, like speech; satire; tongue in cheek; They just plain don't get it. Maybe that comes from being a tortured, isolated, uneducated, society (except for the chosen ones).
I haven't heard the Limpballs ditto headless apologize for repeating this poll on other sites
Love the Onion and kinda laughing out loud that the Iranian media police are actually reading it. I mean it talkes about sex, drugs, rock and roll.... how do they cleanse their minds after :)
are they saying they are no different from the rest of the world, other than being a total nutcake?
I'd hazard a guess that most "rural Americans" who get their news from Fox News, believe Ahmadinejad and Obama are one in the same. The only difference being that Obama is also pushing Socialism/Communism in addition to Sharia law.
While the Onion story was parody, I don't find it all that far fetched. I'd like to see some good pollsters run that poll for real, and see what the numbers are. They might be closer to the Onion article than one might think.
This quote from Khomeini in 1979 should clear things up a bit.
I'll bet he'd be a blast to have at a party!
It only clears up what was said in 1979, not where humor was before or is now. Also, when's the last time N. had a sense of humor, except inadvertently.
DEWEY versus TRUMAN!
Wait...The Onion isn't real?
Whoa.
I'd rather have a beer with Ahmadinejad, no seriously. Both are tools of the fakery engine but that would be my choice.
Just because it's in the the Onion it's not true? It could actually be true and they're spoofing us!
I wonder if the clueless wingnuts will ever apologize for claiming that Ahmadinejad said he's wipe Israel off the map?
After all, even Israel admits that claim was false.
So when this very news agency, the left wing liberal one you are reading right now, said Iran actually threatened WW3 and Obama actually warned them, is that still the wingnuts fault?
Or are you just opening that big loud mouth of yours again and busily inserting your foot... again?
I think you've got the order of the threats reversed. It's Israel and the US which have been threatening to bomb Iran for doing what is has the legal right to do under the NPT.
I think you have your own president confused as he stated:
Obama: US will 'do what we must' to stop Iran getting nuclear weapons
This was after Iran threatened to start ww3. As I said you REALLY like to mish mash and mix things up. Now you are arguing against your very own beloved Liberal president.
Shame on you!
Iran is and always will be known as an evil, violent, terrorist state. Thanks for identifying yourself as their ally!
Quoting the Onion as fact.... now that's freek'n hilarious.
If there was any country that would do this, it would be Iran.
Between quoting the Onion and their flying boats which according to the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution are capable of taking out our Navy one has to seriously reconsider the United States ability to utilize common sense about analyzing this ridiculous regime as to being a threat.
What's next? The Holocaust never happened? Oh wait... they already said that as well.
They said it was open to scholars to investigate it and not be jailed; you know like free speech.
I sure as hell am not part of the 77%. My time is too valuable to spend it with either of these two wortless poiliticians.
I'm a metropolitan Caucasian male and I'd prefer catching a ball game with Ahmadinejad.
Thanks, Fars! LMAO !!!
Now FARS admits they goofed but still thinks if an actual poll was taken their guy would win anyway. This was hilarious to begin with and just keeps getting better.
Well, at least 'The Onion' is 1000 times more trustworthy than Faux News.
Actually most white conservative Southerners would probably rather hang our President from a tree, as has been their habit for 200 years, than attend a baseball game with him.
Kinda like these folks hanging effigies of a president from a tree, guillotining him, burning him, etc?
http://www.binscorner.com/pages/d/death-threats-against-bush-at-protests-i.html
Mr Lloyd, yet another fine example of liberal hypocrisy and BS!
Tomorrow's headline:
Iranian propaganda worker found dead today of apparent "self-inflicted" gunshot wounds.
The Onion always makes my eyes tear.....from laughter.
I weep for my country - Shucklack & BostonLizzy you make me feel that there is hope and a few out there who still have grey cells between their ears. As for most of the follks, it appears that the point was missed. I guess most of them are too busy watching "Housewives Of ...." So sad; I'm convinced that if our founding fathers were to come back they would weep, that their bold experiement failed so badly.
Funny thing is, a lot of liberal Democrats believed the Onion story was true as well! After all, they are just about as out of touch with reality as Iran.
Don't believe me? Just look at some of the liberal responses to this very article!
Another Onion satire was the 'Teleprompter President' one. They did it to see who was dumb enough to run with it.
If I remember right, Saddam Hussien, used to say to our soldiers on the radio, that our wives and daugheters were sleeping with Bart Simpson. In which the american republic replied, "Better Bart Simpson, than Jihad Joe."
It was a freaky time.
As for the Onion....The Onion series is nothing more than parodies of pop culture news. That the middle-east believes everything they see on TV, goes to show, that maybe they need to SHOW more tv.