Chinese newspapers were fooled by a missile test spoof written by New Yorker humorist Andy Borowitz. The American spoof stated that the missile test planned by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was postponed to an indefinite time due to several Windows 8 glitches, CNET News informs.
Several newspapers in China fell victim to a spoof written by the New Yorker humorist Andy Borowitz in relation to the much-debated North Korean nuclear tests. Borowitz mocked the entire situation by saying that the missile tests have been postponed to an unknown date as a result of glitches affecting Microsoft’s Windows 8. The North Korean leader was so disturbed by the technical problems of the software that he decided to declare war on Microsoft, instead of continuing his nuclear plans.
The article was perceived as a joke by all publications, except Guandong, a China-based newspaper, which reproduced Borowitz’s work as a true story. The declarations included in Andy’s spoof were attributed to intelligence analysts, thus contributing to the veracity of the article. The Chinese publication did not realize that the American article was not real and informed people that Kim Jong-un is “considering a number of options, including declaring war on Microsoft”.
The first Chinese newspaper to realize that Andy Borowitz made a spoof was South China Morning Post. Guandong deleted their initial post after realizing that they made a mistake. No ulterior declarations were made in relation to their mistake as the Chinese-based publication did not apologize to readers for misinforming them.
Microsoft, too, did not make any comments regarding the recent articles published by the press. The software company doesn’t seem to be bothered by the various complaints that analysts and customers, alike, are making about its latest program, Windows 8. The glitches that have been noticed by Microsoft users will be attended to by the company in the following period.