Fox Nation Links to Onion Satire, Readers Don’t Get Joke, Go Nuts
The editors at Fox Nation may have realized they were posting a link to a satirical article from the Onion, but they curiously forgot to mention it to the readers of their website.
And the vast majority of those readers had no idea whatsoever that it was a joke, because it was an anti-Obama article. That’s the shiny object that always captures their attention.
Yes, the Fox Nation editors were apparently so enamored with an Onion piece from today entitled “Frustrated Obama Sends Nation Rambling 75,000-Word E-Mail” that they reposted the first two paragraphs in their culture section with nary a sign as to its fictional nature. The only clue that this wasn’t real (besides a quick peek at your inbox to confirm that Barack Obama hasn’t been emailing you) was a link at the bottom instructing readers to go to TheOnion.com for the real story. This tiny link was, unfortunately, not enough for the vast majority of FN readers. At least, that’s the way it seems from the comments section.
Here’s a sampling:
“If this story is correct, that he did send out this email, it is very concerning about his current state of mental health. I am surprised he would be allowed to send something like this out and if he is not functioning very well why there isn’t some attention being paid to his current state.”
[…]
“Hey, you fraud: Get out. Your presidency is an affront to the exceptionalism of America. Pathetic loser.”
[…]
“HAHAHAHAHAHA OBUMMA – Un-raveled. EPIC FAILURE. IMPEACH it.”
The comments at Fox Nation are among the craziest of the right wing web (and that’s really saying something), as we just mentioned yesterday.
UPDATE at 11/26/10 4:50:13 pm:
And now the article is gone from the Fox Nation website.