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Too Much Free Time

by Mike Masnick

Fri, Aug 3rd 2007 3:35pm




Filed Under:
china, homer, simpsons


Chinese Newspaper Uses Homer Simpson 'X-Ray' To Illustrate Article On Multiple Sclerosis Discovery

from the whooops dept

You may remember back in 2002, when the Beijing Evening News accidentally believed a story from The Onion and wrote up a whole article (apparently without a single fact check) about how Congress was threatening to move away from Washington DC unless they were given a new capitol building with a retractable dome. For a while, the paper denied that it had simply copied the story and not done any fact checking, until it realized that it was too difficult to deny. Then it issued a hilarious non-apology, basically blaming The Onion for purposely tricking the reporters in an effort to make money ("Some small American newspapers frequently fabricate offbeat news to trick people into noticing them, with the aim of making money. This is what the Onion does... According to congressional workers, the Onion is a publication that never ceases making up false reports."). It appears that there's still some sloppy reporting going on over in China. The English-language Xinhuanet has a story up about the discovery of two genes that may lead to multiple sclerosis. However, the image they used (which they've since taken down) to illustrate this finding happens to be an amusing drawing of an "x-ray" of beloved cartoon character Homer Simpson's head. Now, obviously, there have been a ton of promotional tie-ins with the new Simpson Movie, but somehow we doubt this was done on purpose. We can't wait to see if the news agency figures out a way to blame this one on the Simpsons as well.

17 Comments | Leave a Comment

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  1.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Aug 3rd, 2007 @ 3:57pm

    DUH!

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  
    identicon
    matt, Aug 3rd, 2007 @ 4:07pm

    lol

    i bet it left the editor saying "DOH!" then slowly getting his fatness out of his office chair, and waddling over to the fridge to get a duff beer. i can't believe how irresponsible some people are.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  
    identicon
    GoblinJuice, Aug 3rd, 2007 @ 4:09pm

    "File photo"

    =D

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  
    identicon
    Jeff, Aug 3rd, 2007 @ 5:03pm

    Of course...

    ...it's Homers fault, he got an x-ray even though he's a cartoon 'n shit. That's besides the point though, what's really important is that HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  5.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Aug 3rd, 2007 @ 5:23pm

    whats next, a news story about a pig that walks on ceilings? the headline "LOOK OUT!! FOR SPIDER PIG"

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  6.  
    identicon
    Eric the Grey, Aug 3rd, 2007 @ 5:55pm

    Re:

    No, no no. You've got it wrong.

    It should be "Doh!"



    EtG
    [not even a Simpson's fan.]

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  7.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Aug 3rd, 2007 @ 6:35pm

    D'oh

    I thought it was "D'oh"

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  8.  
    identicon
    Some dude, Aug 3rd, 2007 @ 6:54pm

    Eric is right

    It's Doh!

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  9.  
    icon
    Peet McKimmie (profile), Aug 4th, 2007 @ 1:59am

    Can you imagine...

    ...the Google Images search they used...?

    +"x-ray" yellow skin

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  10.  
    identicon
    guy, Aug 4th, 2007 @ 6:33am

    ha ha

    (nelsons voice) " HA HA "

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  11.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Aug 4th, 2007 @ 8:17am

    Homer X-Rays

    I work for a hospital chain in IT and have seen these Homer Simpson x-ray films floating around our hospitals, I am not sure where they came from but I am guessing they are some demo gimick from our x-ray equipment vendors (i.e. Kodak or 3M).

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  12.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Aug 5th, 2007 @ 10:59am

    article with pic

    article with pic

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  13.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Aug 6th, 2007 @ 5:18am

    have you seen some of the other articles from that news site? some of its terrible and you'd only expect to find in a tabloid.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  14.  
    identicon
    James, Aug 6th, 2007 @ 8:09am

    LMAO

    They should write a Simpsons episode where the family visits China (again if they have already), and, homer gets an x-ray which inadvertently gets in the hands of the newspaper.... lol

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  15.  
    identicon
    Ami Simms, Aug 6th, 2007 @ 12:41pm

    Just what I

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  16.  
    identicon
    Ami Simms, Aug 6th, 2007 @ 12:47pm

    Just what I's expect.

    This is clearly a result of China' censoring of the internet. You can't even find X-Rays of real people! Here is a link to the cached story. It loads much faster than the link above. Link to Article
    D'oh!

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  17.  
    identicon
    Ted Brown, Aug 6th, 2007 @ 2:58pm

    *cough*

    You can't show depictions of skeletons in China. So the editor probably wanted a real x-ray, but had to settle for a cartoon imitation instead.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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