China’s Beijing Evening News copied an article from The Onion, not realizing it was satire, and published a rewritten version reporting that Congress was threatening to move out of Washington unless a fancy new Capitol is built. “We consider this a warning and will strengthen supervision of our reports,” said Yu Bing, a manager of the Evening News’ foreign news department. But when the newspaper finally admitted that it screwed up in stealing a story from The Onion, the paper criticized The Onion for making up stories, apparently not realizing it’s a parody publication. “Some small American newspapers frequently fabricate offbeat news to trick people into noticing them, with the aim of making money,” the paper said. “This is what the Onion does.” The whole episode has been so bizarre, it’s starting to sound like a story you might find in The Onion. Sometime the truth really is stranger than fiction!
