The Onion: Lost in translation

A couple of Bangladeshi news outlets were left with red faces after publishing an article in which astronaut Neil Armstrong admitted that the moon landings were faked.

Two websites ran the story without double-checking where it had come from – unfortunately neither had spotted that The Onion is a satirical site.

The Onion published the article, which was then reported on in the Daily Manab Zamin and New Nation in Bangladesh, the BBC reports.

"It has become painfully clear to me that on July 20, 1969, the Lunar Module under the control of my crew did not in fact travel 250,000 miles over eight days, touch down on the moon and perform various experiments, ushering in a new era for humanity. Instead, the entire thing was filmed on a soundstage, most likely in New Mexico," 'Armstrong' is quoted as saying.

It's a good laugh but how anyone could fail to see the joke is beyond me. Perhaps the tone of the article is lost in translation.

And it isn't the first time The Onion has fooled other news outlets – an article about Sean Penn getting angry about losing out on an email address was reported as fact on a Danish TV channel.