Lost in Translation Somewhere in Timbuktu...

[RobinStarwing]

Source (http://news.yahoo.com/iranian-news-agency-picks-onion-article-fact-170925534.html)



CHICAGO (AP) — A joke by the satirical newspaper The Onion appears to have gotten lost in translation.

An Iranian news agency picked up — as fact — a story from the paper about a supposed survey showing an overwhelming majority of rural white Americans would rather vote for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than President Barack Obama. But it was made up, like everything in the just-for-laughs newspaper, which is headquartered in Chicago.

The English-language service of Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency republished the story Friday, several days after it appeared in The Onion.

The Iranian version copied the original word-for-word, even including a made-up quote from a fictional West Virginia resident who says he'd rather go to a baseball game with Ahmadinejad because "he takes national defense seriously, and he'd never let some gay protesters tell him how to run his country like Obama does."

Homosexual acts are punishable by death in Iran, and Ahmadinejad famously said during a 2007 appearance at Columbia University that "in Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country."

The Iranian version of the article leaves out only The Onion's description of Ahmadinejad as "a man who has repeatedly denied the Holocaust and has had numerous political prisoners executed."

The article was featured prominently on the Fars website alongside its usual fare of stories about advances in Iranian military technology, condemnation of Israel and Iran's nuclear program. The story appeared to have been taken down by about mid-day, Chicago time.

Calls to Fars representatives were not answered Friday.

The Onion reveled in the fact that it had been taken seriously.
Onion editor Will Tracy put out a tongue-in-cheek statement that referred to Fars as "a subsidiary of The Onion" that has acted as the paper's Middle Eastern bureau since it was founded in the mid-1980s by Onion publisher T. Herman Zweibel.

"The Onion freely shares content with Fars and commends the journalists at Iran's Finest News Source on their superb reportage," Tracy said in jest.

It's not the first time a foreign news outlet has been duped by The Onion. In 2002, the Beijing Evening News, one of the Chinese capital's biggest newspapers, picked up a story from The Onion that claimed members of Congress were threatening to leave Washington unless the building underwent a makeover that included more bathrooms and a retractable dome.



I came to the conclusion with all the doom and gloom in the News section at NPF...we needed a touch of the ridiculous. Have fun!

[Ecks]

rob this is mildly amusing and more than likely belongs in european vacationland

news is apparantly srsbzns land once again

[Meister]

You are wrong because this works fine on the basis that it is in fact news and also has an interesting general issue behind it. There really are quite a lot of examples (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_onion#The_Onion_taken_seriously) of Onion articles being taken seriously and it raises the question what kind of importance background checks on stories have in journalism as a whole. It's one thing if Fred Phelps or Fox Nation fall for it but once you get fairly reputable papers like Corriere della Sera in the list, you gotta start to wonder.

"Lost in translation" can only explain so much because I'd imagine at some point during the regular background check on a story you'd say "where's it from" and then you either know what The Onion is or you take the five seconds to find out.

[rpgdemon]

I am liking The Onion less and less. Between this (The article is essentially a giant "FUCK YOU!" to any gay people actually in Iran, telling them that we Americans think that their treatment is right, or at bare minimum is definitely making fun of their shitty situation/diminishing it), and the "HEY GUYS LOOK AT HOW STUPID AND EXTREMISTS ALL MUSLIMS ARE BECAUSE NO OTHER RELIGIONS MURDERED ANYONE OVER THIS OFFENSIVE IMAGE WE MADE" article that was essentially just Muslim-bashing, they really are just incredibly intolerant and huge jerks.

[Meister]

Do you work for a newspaper?

[rpgdemon]

No, and why would that be relevant to The Onion recently treating minorities like crap?

Like, they murder people for being gay in Iran. Even if it's facetious, this article is (essentially) thumbs upping that behavior for the sake of making a joke. You shouldn't be making jokes that require people to murder gays.*

Even if you think the joke isn't in poor taste, the article is now printed in Iran. Gay people in Iran are now reading this. What's The Onion do? "THIS IS FUCKING HILARIOUS HOW GAY PEOPLE IN IRAN ARE READING ABOUT HOW FUNNY IT IS THAT THEY'RE BEING KILLED."

*Their "joke" boils down to: "Hey guys, it's funny that people complain about disliking Obama so much, it's like he's worse than a guy who murders people! That would be super funny to say! Who gives a fuck about the people being murdered, let's promote his platform as awesome and those people as stupid gays who everyone hates, but guys, we're doing it ironically!" It doesn't matter how satirical or ironic you're being, you're marginalizing and even ostracizing people who are currently being murdered, because you want to make an unfunny joke.

[rpgdemon]

I'm pretty much pointing my finger everywhere, because I don't know where exactly it's supposed to go right now. I just know that something about this feels definitely wrong to do, especially to just laugh about it when the oppressed people in question are given the article as real news.

The joke requires making light of the murder of gay citizens, and I don't think they should be doing that.

[greed]

Yes it does matter how ironic you're being, it's perfectly legitimate satire. Fuck get a thicker skin RPG. The joke isn't "haha Muslims" but "hahaha irrational hatred of Obama".

[rpgdemon]

So, you're cool with the fact that they went, "Hahahaha that's hilarious" to the fact that the story got picked up in Iran, where these people being murdered live, and was reported to them as real news?

Like, imagine for a moment. These people are being murdered for being gay, and they see a news report, straight out of America, "They think that we're way better than them, and that it's great what's happening to gay people here." That is revolting and sickening.

[rpgdemon]

Plus, I'm guessing you have no idea what the other article was, which was posted here as hilarious, where they had a picture that was meant to purposely offend most religions but Muslims, and they laughed going, "HEY, SEE HOW NOT INSANE WE ARE?! WE DIDN'T KILL PEOPLE FROM BEING OFFENDED." That was their entire joke, made to be in response to the killings over that video. That joke is LITERALLY, "Muslims are crazy extremists, we're so much better, isn't xenophobia funny?"

[greed]

So, you're cool with the fact that they went, "Hahahaha that's hilarious" to the fact that the story got picked up in Iran, where these people being murdered live, and was reported to them as real news?

Like, imagine for a moment. These people are being murdered for being gay, and they see a news report, straight out of America, "They think that we're way better than them, and that it's great what's happening to gay people here." That is revolting and sickening.

Yeah some Iranian newspaper taking it seriously is funny, sorry you got no sense of humour dude. You gotta laugh at shit like this and not take everything so seriously.

[Marc v4.0]

I'm not sure where you are getting "HAHAHA! LOOK AT THEM KILL ALL THOSE HOMOS!" from "Hahaha, wow they thought it was a real news article, how goddamn stupid do you really have to be?"

The logical leaps and bounds, the dancing around reality and completely ignoring any and all context... truly stunning work.

EDIT: The point of the article is that people are so completely fucking lost that they would willingly elect a murderer or tyrant just to avoid electing "that there black man and his homosexual supporters" and these people are JOKES THAT SHOULD BE RIDICULED AND LAUGHED AT INSTEAD OF BEING CATERED TO.

Yes, It is pretty terrible that people in a country that actually murders gay people got it reported to them as a legitimate thing that we are reporting instead of a joke article that is making fun of their shit government and our shit government/public. Jumping through hoops to somehow pin The Onion with the blame for another group across the world lying about them is just pissing your rage at your own head.

[Loyal]

I'm pretty much pointing my finger everywhere, because I don't know where exactly it's supposed to go right now.

Just a suggestion, but perhaps you should then point it at nobody? This right here should have told you to sit back and chill the fuck out till you had a better grasp on the situation. The shotgun approach to blaming and shaming won't get you anywhere.

[Flarecobra]

You know, I may not have the best sense of humor, but even I found this a bit funny. It's like Iran is desprate for anything that puts them in a better light then the US it seems or something.

[Magus]

I didn't take the joke as about how Ahmadinejad was killing gay (homosexual) protestors specifically, the joke was the made-up redneck caricature was calling protestors gay (because they are protestors, not because of actual homosexuality), and then applauding Ahmadinejad for oppressively putting down protests with impunity, as opposed to Obama who does not oppressively put down protests with impunity. The point was the ignorance of the redneck caricature representing the average American, not Iran's intolerance of gay people.

Basically it's saying the average rural white American has the mindset of a teenage boy on XBOX Live, hating on the gay hippie commie protestors and loving Ahmadinejad for not putting up with any of that horsecrap like Obummer, who they hate irrationally to the point of liking Ahmadinejad better.

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. “He takes national defense seriously, and he’d never let some gay protesters tell him how to run his country like Obama does.” According to the same Gallup poll, 60 percent of rural whites said they at least respected that Ahmadinejad doesn’t try to hide the fact that he’s Muslim.

Really the people who should be offended are rural whites since not all of them are irrational haters of Obama to the point they would prefer a dictator...although if it were "77% hate him" then...probably yeah.

What I really wonder about the effect of this article is if this fake article was what Ahmadinejad was referring to when he replied to an implication from a reporter that he was unpopular in the West and the United States that he was actually quite popular with the average American, and "if you ask the man on the street here in New York, you may realize quite differently, that U.S. citizens like me", OR if this satirical article was merely a response to him saying that. I don't know the date of when this was posted versus when he said that, but it was around the time of the U.N. General Assembly that he made that statement, so if that article is older maybe that is what gave him the hilarious idea that the average American likes him.

[Magus]

Oh, and about how this is making light of something quite serious--that's the essence of satire, I'm afraid. Why do you think when teaching people about satire we most often refer to A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift, a treatise about how the impoverished, starving Irish masses, kept in perpetual near-slavery by English landlords, should solve their hunger issues by eating their own children? It's so when you see a parody like this you aren't as taken aback as you might otherwise be.

[Marelo]

I'm pretty much pointing my finger everywhere, because I don't know where exactly it's supposed to go right now. I just know that something about this feels definitely wrong to do, especially to just laugh about it when the oppressed people in question are given the article as real news.

The joke requires making light of the murder of gay citizens, and I don't think they should be doing that.

Just to clear this up, RPG was replying here to a post I made and deleted before he replied. Basically I said the joke requires an assumption that Ahmadinejad's regime is horrific to even make sense, so he's pointing his finger at the wrong part of the issue. The idea that The Onion is applauding the murder of gay people is a pretty big stretch.

I probably shouldn't have deleted it!

[Karrrrrrrrrrrresche]

Oh, and about how this is making light of something quite serious--that's the essence of satire, I'm afraid. Why do you think when teaching people about satire we most often refer to A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift, a treatise about how the impoverished, starving Irish masses, kept in perpetual near-slavery by English landlords, should solve their hunger issues by eating their own children? It's so when you see a parody like this you aren't as taken aback as you might otherwise be.

Not just eating their own children, but creating an entire industry based around the production of baby meat as a luxury product.

[Premmy]

The worst part about this discussion is that the legitimate point about the "And noone died when this fictional image that would be offensive to X Other religions" being really shitty has been lost.

[Magus]

We talked about how shitty that one was already in that other topic about its shittiness, though.

[Marelo]

It was pretty shitty, as I recall.

[RobinStarwing]

It was pretty shitty, as I recall.

Yeah, shittier then me doing a clean out.

Anyways, I would not be surprised if they printed the story out of desperation and to make Americans look like assholes.

EDIT: I mainly posted this article cause I found it funny that any paper would take an Onion article seriously. Then yesterday I had someone ask me when I related the tale of this article, "What's an Onion?"

[Premmy]

I had to go look that one up. Carry on, then.

[Meister]

Anyways, I would not be surprised if they printed the story out of desperation and to make Americans look like assholes.

Wait who now, Fars or the Onion? Cause if you mean Fars it's much much more likely they printed the article as a way of saying, "look, the American government may criticize us, but its people agree with our president." And pointing that out is of course the entire point of the Onion article - that there are US citizens, right now, in the USA, who would probably vote for a candidate on a platform of "kill the homosexuals, nuke other countries if they peep up." Just so happens there's a well-known politican who fits the bill. Reading any kind of approval into it is just missing the point.

Also can someone finally link this mythical other Onion article that's cause for complaint, I missed that discussion.

[RobinStarwing]

Wait who now, Fars or the Onion? Cause if you mean Fars it's much much more likely they printed the article as a way of saying, "look, the American government may criticize us, but its people agree with our president." And pointing that out is of course the entire point of the Onion article - that there are US citizens, right now, in the USA, who would probably vote for a candidate on a platform of "kill the homosexuals, nuke other countries if they peep up." Just so happens there's a well-known politican who fits the bill. Reading any kind of approval into it is just missing the point.

Also can someone finally link this mythical other Onion article that's cause for complaint, I missed that discussion.

Fars and they are really going fars out for that I think.

The scenario I am thinking is that because of how tightly controlled the media is in Iran; people can't go and see the Onion article. Throw on top that any form of Satire is probably banned or punished secretly and people will not know that The Onion prints stuff that is meant in jest.

[Flarecobra]

http://www.theonion.com/articles/gallup-poll-rural-whites-prefer-ahmadinejad-to-oba,29677/?ref=auto

It actually took a little bit of digging to find it.

[Magus]

Oh, good. I just copy-pasted the article from another place, there is the actual source. Nice job!

Anyway, I'd like to point out that the way Fars (FARS?) published this was not as an article saying, "American news publication says that rural white Americans would prefer Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for president", they actually replaced the fake Charlotte, West Virginia byline with a byline reading Tehran, Iran and ran the article unedited except for removing the fact that Ahmadinejad has killed tons of people, as if they had wrote it themselves.

So not only had they been fooled by a satirical publication, they actually committed plagiarism to publish a fake article as real news credited to them and their research team. THAT'S how stupid Fars is in this situation.

[rpgdemon]

So not only had they been fooled by a satirical publication, they actually committed plagiarism to publish a fake article as real news credited to them and their research team. THAT'S how stupid Fars is in this situation.

Okay, that is pretty funny.

[RobinStarwing]

Anyway, I'd like to point out that the way Fars (FARS?) published this was not as an article saying, "American news publication says that rural white Americans would prefer Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for president", they actually replaced the fake Charlotte, West Virginia byline with a byline reading Tehran, Iran and ran the article unedited except for removing the fact that Ahmadinejad has killed tons of people, as if they had wrote it themselves.

So not only had they been fooled by a satirical publication, they actually committed plagiarism to publish a fake article as real news credited to them and their research team. THAT'S how stupid Fars is in this situation.

Dear lord...they are really that desperate to make President Ahmadinejad look good. This is just beyond pathetic.

It also backs up for me how little difference there is between Radical Christians and Radical Muslims. Both would just light the world on fire and watch it burn just to get their way.