Iranian news agency picks up Onion article as fact

[September 29, 2012]  CHICAGO (AP) -- A joke by the satirical newspaper The Onion appears to have gotten lost in translation.

An Iranian news agency has picked up as fact a story from the paper about a supposed survey showing a majority of white Americans would rather vote for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (ah-muh-DEE'-neh-zhahd) than President Barack Obama. The only trouble is it was made up, like everything in the just-for-laughs newspaper, which is headquartered in the comedic capital 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 is copied word-for-word from the original. It 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."

[Associated Press]

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