Published November 20, 2014
A joke by the satirical newspaper The Onion appears to have gotten lost in translation.
An Iranian news agency has picked up as fact a story from the paper about a supposed survey showing a majority of white Americans would rather vote for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (ah-muh-DEE'-neh-zhahd) than President Barack Obama. The only trouble is it was made up, like everything in the just-for-laughs newspaper, which is headquartered in the comedic capital Chicago.
The English-language service of Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency republished the story Friday, several days after it appeared in The Onion.
The Iranian version is copied word-for-word from the original. It leaves out only The Onion's description of Ahmadinejad as "a man who has repeatedly denied the Holocaust and has had numerous political prisoners executed."
https://www.foxnews.com/world/iranian-news-agency-picks-up-onion-article-on-obama-as-fact