Chinese media, tripped up by satirical article, erroneously report bathrobe-wearing President Trump 'ordered his aides to wrap the White House telephones in tinfoil'

Chinese media reports fake news on Trump.
(Image credit: PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images)

Chinese media outlets missed the memo that comedian Andy Borowitz's articles for The New Yorker are purely satirical. This week, multiple Chinese publications — citing one of Borowitz's articles — reported a "frantic President Trump, holding court in a bathrobe, ordered his aides to wrap the White House telephones in tinfoil," The New York Times noted Wednesday.

That wasn't the only fictional tidbit that got picked up and passed around as fact. Headlines in reputable magazines read, "Trump turns White House upside down looking for signs of Obama: 'I know he's still here!'"

Readers were left either confused the state-run media was writing up jokes, or seriously worried about Trump after reading the reports. "This is illness," a user on microblogging site Weibo wrote, per The New York Times.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

This isn't the first time Chinese media has mistaken satire for fact: In 2012, a Chinese newspaper reported The Onion had deemed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "Sexiest Man Alive for 2012."

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us