Parody Newspaper Publishes Real Story as Satire

The (Much Real) News

Readers of the The Shallot, the largest-circulation newspaper of eccentric and parodist news, were surprised to learn that the UK police had reason to believe that former Pakistani PM, Benazir Bhutto was killed in a blast; weeks after everybody else figured that out.

“The blast caused a violent collision between her head and the escape hatch area of the vehicle, causing a severe and fatal head injury,” Detective Superintendent John MacBrayne, was quoted as saying. “Seriously.” He added.

The attacker had detonated explosives, the article said, thereby causing him to blow himself to smithereens, and everything else in a 50 m (164 feet) radius, including Ms. Bhutto.

The Source

The story seems lol-worthy enough, in particular the timing. Trouble is, it was lifted straight from The BBC News website, the well respected news source based in London, which has provided many Brits the latest scoop on current events for a 100 years in running.
Its story on the assassination appeared on February 8th, alongside such serious headlines as “Murder charges for Kenya police” and “Deadly blast at US sugar refinery”.

The Mistake

A writer for the The Shallot apparently picked up the item from the Internet, reworked the opening paragraphs and submitted it to his editors, who then published it as a parody, without even removing the much real source citations.

Nobody, perhaps not even the reporter, appeared to realize it was real.

George Burley, the editor in charge of satire, acknowledged that he had no idea where the writer, Timmy Pickles, originally got the story. George said he would tell Timmy to “be more careful next time.”