"Calling the current U.S. Capitol 'inadequate and obsolete,' Congress will relocate to Charlotte or Memphis if its demands for a new, state-of-the-art facility are not met," The Onion wrote in May 2002.
"Don't get us wrong: We love the drafty old building," Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL) said. "But the hard reality is, it's no longer suitable for a world-class legislative branch. The sight lines are bad, there aren't enough concession stands or bathrooms, and the parking is miserable. It hurts to say, but the capitol's time has come and gone."
It is likely that the editors of the Beijing Evening News did not recognize the article's reference to US professional sports franchises' demands for new stadiums. But one might think that the illustration of a proposed new capitol building with a retractable dome would suggest something odd about the Onion article.
It did not. The Evening News published the story as real. And initially, even when told the story was satire, the Chinese paper's international news editor "ruled out a correction, challenging a [Los Angeles] Times reporter to prove that the story was false."
The Evening News did realize its error a week later, and apologized for its mistake, though it still seemed not to understand The Onion's satirical nature.
"Some small American newspapers frequently fabricate offbeat news to trick people into noticing them, with the aim of making money," the paper said. "This is what the Onion does."
