Everything you read on the internet is true right? Are wikipedia articles a reliable source for primary research?
I wasn’t following Congressman John Fleming or this story on the onion at all. But the site “Literally Unbelievable”, which tracks Facebook postings of The Onion articles, found that the congressman from Louisiana had posted a story from The Onion on his Wall.
Brett Smiley wrote this up at nymag.com - which is what took me down the rabbit hole.
Satire got the best of unsuspecting or factually impaired Republican Congressman John Fleming of Louisiana this past Friday.The Onion’s Abortion Plex satire piece ran last May.
TOPEKA, KS—Planned Parenthood announced Tuesday the grand opening of its long-planned $8 billion Abortionplex, a sprawling abortion facility that will allow the organization to terminate unborn lives with an efficiency never before thought possible.The conversation about trusting online sources seems to come up frequently and I am a fan of gathering all the information possible and then considering the sources. I often go to wikipedia and then look at the reference sources. I guess not everyone does this.
To be fair, it can be hard to tell between a joke and a fact. Just look at all these Yelp reviews about the clinic.
I also got the groupon for the Abortionplex and overall my experience was fine. The clinic was fast and service was friendly and efficient but they seemed a little ruder towards me (I think) because I had a groupon.There is a lesson here …
Update added 2/15:
“The Onion is not a hoax website, it’s satire, there’s a long tradition of satire that goes back thousands of years, but some people are stupid — it’s a diverse society in every way,” - Baratunde Thurston