We’ve all heard the term “Not The Onion” used to indicate that an outrageous online story is actually true, but what if it’s so bizarre you still don’t trust that it’s not The Onion? The liberal but usually reliable Huffington Post reported yesterday that CNN had won an award for its coverage of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight 370, possibly into a black hole. (And no, the term “zombie plane” isn’t our invention, but CNN’s.)
In about an hour the Huffington Post issued a correction, clarifying that the award was for coverage of the downing of flight MH17 over Ukraine. In a press release on the CNN blog, the cable network announced that it had been awarded the prize for best live television journalism by the Association for International Broadcasting for its MH17 coverage. But it was the Huffington Post’s initial story that burned up Twitter.
Elizabeth Landers is a news assistant at CNN, and even she retweeted the bogus version of HuffPo’s story while getting the facts straight in her tweet.
.@CNN received an award for our Malaysia Airlines flight 17 coverage from the Association for Int'l Broadcastinghttp://t.co/d0YHCpDdn4
— Elizabeth Landers (@ElizLanders) November 6, 2014
https://twitter.com/allisonkilkenny/status/530521039139528706
in case u thought these awards were serious RT @HuffPostMedia: CNN wins award for Malaysia Airlines plane coverage
http://t.co/5Y0muM3nfC— Oliver Willis (@owillis) November 6, 2014
"@HuffingtonPost: CNN wins award for Malaysia Airlines plane coverage" THERE SHOULD NOT be an award for nonstop speculative reporting!
— Noahvail (@ZGhaoN) November 6, 2014
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA RT @HuffingtonPost: CNN wins award for Malaysia Airlines plane coverage http://t.co/clUxGC4zmf
— economic intercourse fan account (@TeamThirstTrap) November 6, 2014
Please kill us now, Sweet Meteor of Death. RT @HuffingtonPost: CNN wins award for Malaysia Airlines plane coverage http://t.co/z8enAuzhul
— This Tweet is Quarantined (@earlmikell) November 6, 2014
All 652,688 hours? RT @BuzzFeedAndrew: CNN Wins Award For Malaysia Airlines Plane Coverage http://t.co/2ytGBGLOWP
— KRenner (@KRenner2) November 7, 2014
The "could it have been a black hole" discussion won it RT @BuzzFeedAndrew CNN Wins Award For Malaysia Plane Coverage http://t.co/tMADOB77Ro
— Braden Wolf (@bwolf4) November 7, 2014
https://twitter.com/CAlvarezAranyos/status/530502081103544321
Congratulations on the award, CNN. And if there were a prize for excessive investigation of zombie planes sucked into black holes, we’re sure you’d win that too.
Considering touring @CNN when I'm in Atlanta. I guess the question is how much more do I want to learn about #MH370?
— Matthew Anderson (@hewanderson) November 7, 2014
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