The Onion is Satire- But Some Republicans Still haven't Gotten the Memo

[WhoIsNumberNone]

Congressman Falls for The Onion's Planned Parenthood 'Abortionplex' Story


Meet John Fleming, the unfortunate Republican U.S. Representative from Louisiana who made that wonderful and all-too-common mistake of thinking that an Onion article was real and telling his Facebook followers to read it. Fleming's Facebook status was posted by Literally Unbelievable, a Tumblr that collects images of Facebookers who think Onion satires are the real deal and post them on their walls.

Below is an update Fleming posted (from Friday, according to the blogger) for his followers to read about Planned Parenthood's "wholesale" approach to providing abortions:



What's doubly sad about this posting (obviously deleted now) is that The Onion article shared, "Planned Parenthood Opens $8 Billion Abortionplex," is from May 2011 and is something of a viral classic, even inspiring some users of Yelp to "review" the facility described. So not only did Rep. Fleming (who calls abortion a "pernicious evil&quot or at least one of his staffers believe Kansas now has an abortion clinic with "coffee shops, bars, dozens of restaurants and retail outlets, a three-story nightclub, and a 10-screen multiplex theater," but it's not even recent fake news. (Though it's a fake news item that's gotten other people who weren't U.S. representatives.)

Source: Atlantic Wire
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2012/02/congressman-falls-months-old-onion-story-about-planned-parenthood-abortionplex/48344/

[DrDan]

1. "Staire"????- is this a satire?

[WhoIsNumberNone]

2. No, it's a typo.

I WANT THE SPELL CHECKER BACK!!!!!

[Kaleko]

4. Was wondering about that too.

This may be easier to divine if one is dyslexic.

[treestar]

3. How embarrassing for this person

Not only his own lack of intelligence but his whole staff. Who hasn't heard of the Onion?

[DCKit]

14. Who hasn't heard of an abortionplex?

Totally believable.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

5. Too funny!

What do you want to bet some "concerned" constituent sent it to his office in the first place? Sucker!

[FSogol]

6. I hope someone on his staff is able to explain the concept of satire to the "Congressman."

[demmiblue]

7. That is pretty sad.

And laughable!

Even if one did not know about The Onion, you would think that critical thinking skills would kick in!

[WhoIsNumberNone]

10. Critical Thinking? From a Southern Republican?

Listen to yourself
Plus don't forget that in the Republican Bizzarro World there are vast left wing conspiracies permeating every aspect of American life. We want to put Mao on Mt. Rushmore, right? In that context, does a giant Abortion-plex seem that far fetched?

[JHB]

15. Exactly. They're so used to their own hot air and fogbank of steam rising off bullshit...

...they can't tell when someone farts in the room and blows smoke up their ass.

[Capitalocracy]

8. If he believed this, I wonder what he thinks Santorum means...

[Viking12]

9. I checked out his Facebook page earlier...

He's obviously a full-blown whack-a-doodle.....as are the comments there.

[bulloney]

11. If IQ points were dollars, you might get enough from people like Fleming to buy a stick of gum.

How do people with so little intelligence get elected to office?

[Archae]

12. M-O-N-E-Y

[KamaAina]

13. Is there still time for him to get into the primaries?

What a !!

[Blue_Tires]

16. The sad part is the RW blogosphere also got fooled when it first ran last year

and Fleming STILL didn't get the memo...

[HappyMe]

17. Wow!

What a fool. His staff is no better.

[SpartanDem]

18. These idiots will believe anything