And now, ladies and gentlemen, let us announce the World’s Sexiest Man of 2012!
Recently, on a very rare occasion, China’s People’s Daily agreed with a newspaper based in the United States. The English edition of newspaper- often deemed by western media as a Chinese Communist Party’s mouthpiece- dedicated a 55-picture article to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Eun after one western media outlet declared Mr. Kim the world’s sexiest man of 2012.
Yes, the well-known media outlet is The Onion, a satirical U.S. newspaper reporting on fake international, national, and local news.
Mr. Kim may or may not turn out to be a great leader of North Korea, but People’s Daily is the only major media outlet in the world that has expressed admiration of Mr. Kim’s appearance by seconding The Onion’s parody.
However, upon realizing that The Onion is a satirical newspaper, the editor of People’s Daily changed his mind and took down the article from the website. He clearly did not want to be known as the editor that couldn’t tell the difference between a joke and a serious declaration.
Let’s put aside the debate of whether or not the newspaper believes Kim Jong-Eun could be the sexist man on earth. The important question is: why did an official newspaper so eagerly reprint an obvious satirical article? Adam Minter, Bloomberg’s Shanghai correspondent, believes that The Onion’s article was ‘engineered to appeal to editorial biases’. But this theory could be wrong, too.
Whatever, it’s rather obvious that China’s media authorities need to get either a better sense of humor — or a better handle on the sometimes-frivolous, fun-loving ways of some members of the US. media.
Go To:
http://www.people.com.cn/90777/8035568.html (no longer available)
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-27/why-china-s-people-s-daily-found-kim-jong-un-so-sexy.html