Fox News got pranked big time when they mistakingly aired a parody story as real news. The blogsite Think Progress has all the details, links, and video.
Link expired - http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/27/fox-parody/
On Tuesday, Fox News morning show “Fox & Friends” aired at least eight segments on a purported “news” story that was actually a parody article written by a publication similar to The Onion.
The backstory: Last week in the town of Lewiston, Maine, a group of Somalian Muslim middle school students were the subject of a cruel prank when their peers placed a ham steak next to them in order to personally offend the students. School officials filed a report because the students considered the act to be a hate/bias crime.
This actual story was then spoofed by a parody site called Associated Content, which made up quotes and details, such as the school’s intention to “create an anti-ham ‘response plan.’” LInk Expired - http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/224065/student_leaves_ham_sandwich_on_lunch.html
On Tuesday, Fox & Friends reported these parody quotes and details as actual news. Poking fun at the students, hosts asked whether ham was “a hate crime…or lunch?” and showed screen shots of ham sandwiches, starving Somalians, belching, animal noises, and mock “reenactments” of the incident. Ironically, the hosts assured viewers several times, “We’re not making this up!”
AC even had to go back and put in a disclaimer on it's story page. The parody starts off with this tagline next to a picture of a ham sandwich "Although docile in nature, the ham sandwich is the natural predator of the Muslim middle-school student, often disguising itself as a lunch item until it can get close enough to the Muslim to consume its soul." Now THAT'S funny!
