Iranian News Agency Apologizes for Reporting Onion Story as Fact

It looks like Iranian journalism schools don’t focus nearly enough on ethics.

Iran’s semiofficial Fars News Agency finally admitted on Sunday to lifting an entire article from the Onion last week and passing it off as fact. The headline: “Gallup Poll: Rural Whites Prefer Ahmadinejad to Obama.” An unnamed editor for Fars claimed that although they ripped off the fake news report, Americans probably still prefer Ahmadinejad to Obama. In an added blow, Fars’ evasive apology itself ripped off full chunks of text from the Associated Press and the website Mediaite.

The Onion didn’t seemed miffed by the flap. The satirical paper joked Friday on Twitter that “Iran’s Finest News Source, FARS, is a subsidiary of The Onion. Thus, we freely share any and all content.”