Chatterbox

Whopper of the Week: Nepali Prince Regent (subsequently, King) Gyanendra

“According to the information received by us [they] were seriously injured in an accidental firing from an automatic weapon.”

–Prince Regent Gyanendra, quoted in a statement broadcast June 3 on Nepali state radio, according to CNN. Prince Gyanendra’s comment refers to the former Crown Prince (at that point, King) Dipendra’s massacre of King Birendra and nine royal family members on June 1. King Dipendra died of a self-inflicted gunshot shortly after this statement was made.

“Beloved citizens, I am extremely saddened to tell you that His Majesty King Dipendra is no more with us. In his tenure as King, we as Prince Regent had addressed you earlier. In that address, we had referred to the tragic incident at the Royal Palace on Friday, 19 Jestha 2058, but there were constitutional and legal difficulties in expressing what had actually transpired.”

–Former Prince Regent Gyanendra, now king (check out the Dr. Seuss crown), in a June 4 address to the Nepali nation, according to Nepalnews.com.

Got a whopper? Send it to  chatterbox@slate.com. To be considered, an entry must be an unambiguously false statement paired with an unambiguous refutation, and both must be derived from some appropriately reliable public source. Preference will be given to newspapers and other documents that Chatterbox can link to online.

Whopper Archive:



June 1, 2001: Mary McGrory

May 25, 2001: Ari Fleischer

May 18, 2001: York, Pa., Mayor Charles Robertson

May 11, 2001: Ted Olson

May 4, 2001: Rear Admiral Craig Quigley

April 27, 2001: Ben Affleck

April 20, 2001: South Carolina state legislator Chip Limehouse

April 13, 2001: Gray Davis

April 6, 2001: Sumner Redstone

March 30, 2001: Spencer Abraham

March 23, 2001: George W. Bush, Rep. Jennifer Dunn, and/or the Treasury Department

March 16, 2001: George W. Bush

March 9, 2001: Russ Freyman, spokesman, National Association of Manufacturers

March 2, 2001: Paul O’Neill

Feb. 23, 2001: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton

Feb. 16, 2001: Oscar spokesman John Pavlik

Feb. 9, 2001: Lynne Cheney

Feb. 2, 2001: Bobby Thomson

Jan 26, 2001: Denise Rich