Two newspapers in Bangladesh have had to print apologies to their readers after using an article from a satirical US news website about the moon landings being fake.
The Daily Manab Zamin was the first newspaper to print the article that had appeared on Monday on the website
The Onion. It detailed how the American astronaut Neil Armstrong had stated that he knew the moon landings were an "elaborate hoax" and apparently shocking those gathered at a news conference.
The story was shortly picked up by the
New Nation but both newspapers have had to apologise to their readers for not checking the source or reliability of the story. Neither newspaper realised that
The Onion was not a real news source.
Hasanuzzuman Khan, associate editor of the
New Nation told AFP, "We thought it was true so we printed it without checking."
"We didn't know the Onion was not a real news site."
From the article in
The Onion:
"It only took a few hastily written paragraphs published by this passionate denier of mankind's so-called 'greatest technological achievement' for me to realize I had been living a lie, " said a visibly emotional Armstrong, addressing reporters at his home. "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."
"This is the only logical interpretation of the numerous inconsistencies in the grainy, 40-year-old footage," Armstrong added.
The article ends with the apparent quote from Neil Armstrong, "I suppose it really was one small step for man, one giant lie for mankind."
The story appeared on the satirical website on Monday and by Wednesday the
Daily Manab Zamin had translated it into Bengali and, as the
BBC News website reports, attributed the story to the Onion News Network in Lebanon, Ohio.
The
New Nation picked up the story and ran it on Thursday.
On Thursday the
Daily Manab Zamin printed an apology stating that the report had "drawn a lot of attention".
It also added, "We've since learned that the fun site runs false and juicy reports based on a historic incident."
"The Moon landing one was such a story, which received numerous hits on the internet."
"The truth is that Neil Armstrong never gave such an interview. It was made up. We are sorry for publishing the report without checking the information."
