In an embarrassing report on North Korea’s fired missile, The New York Times failed to spot an obviously fake Twitter account. The Times referenced a tweet by the parody Twitter profile, which claimed that Americans drunkenly fired missiles, citing American ignorance:
Imbecilic Americans drunkenly fire missiles into East Sea of Korea, demonstrating near total ignorance of ballistic science. pic.twitter.com/Yye1Kksvh7
— DPRK News Service (@DPRK_News) July 4, 2017
After The Times realized that they had just cited a parody twitter account, the well-respected news outlet issued this correction:
The New York Times fell for a parody Twitter account of the North Korean government and it's absolute gold pic.twitter.com/I2fxgXM1IM
— Cabot Phillips (@cabot_phillips) July 5, 2017
This news failure comes shortly after a late correction by the Times last week, on a piece regarding Russian involvement in the election. The article falsely reported that 17 intelligence agencies acknowledged that Russian forces influenced the election, when in reality, only 3 agencies were, per National Intelligence Director James Clapper.
Both of these incorrect reports follow the slanderous editorial of the debunked connection between Sarah Palin and the Gabby Giffords shooting, for which Palin is suing The Times.
President Trump has yet to issue any jabs at The New York Times over this piece, but this report was the definition of fake news.
