Current Special Topics Pages

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Haaretz and YNET burned by Royal Wedding Purim Spoof

The Jewish Chronicle in England had a Purim spoof story on their website this past Sunday, masquerading as a "real" news story.

The wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton will take place at Westminster Abbey amid the normal pomp of the Anglican ceremony.

But this time there will be crucial differences - including a traditional Jewish wedding practice.

Buckingham Palace is keen that the wedding takes account of the multi-cultural nature of modern British society, so Muslim, Hindu and Jewish traditions will be incorporated into the Church of England ceremony.

According to detailed wedding plans, due to be released on Sunday, a small amount of mehendi or turmeric, paste will be smeared on Kate's hand in a Muslim pre-wedding ritual. The couple will then offer each other a morsel of food to express mutual love and affection in accordance with the Hindu practice, and then William will smash a glass with his foot as at Jewish weddings.

Buckingham Palace spokesperson Esther Calthorpe-Watts said: "They want everyone to feel a part of the wedding. And while, religiously, the ceremony will be completely Anglican in nature, they felt it appropriate to include these small gestures towards other faiths. (The JC)

I thought it was pretty funny. What I found hilarious is that YNET and Haaretz saw the story, forgot it was Purim, and ran the story as if it were real news!

When they realized they had egg all over their faces, instead of admitting they were fooled by a Purim spoof, they simply DELETED the story page, hoping no one would notice.

Of course, the Muqata notices everything, and here's a google cached copy of the story.

Haaretz Orginal Link (deleted). Google's Cached Copy of the Haaretz story.
YNET Original Link (deleted). Google the story and press the magnifying glass next to the ynet link to see a screen snapshot of the (deleted) story.

Reagrdless, here's a screenshot of the Haaretz Story:

What were they thinking?

That no one knows how to use the internet to see goof-ups? I would think that Haaretz would be respectable enough to admit they made a mistake.

Oh well. Yet another reason I don't subscribe to Haaretz...


Visiting Israel?
Learn to Shoot at
Caliber-3 with top Israeli Anti-Terror Experts!


Follow the Muqata on Twitter.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

2 comments:

  1. I have to admit I fell for it too! and didn't notice subtle hints like date of release of plans or name of spokesperson. This is not the first time that a JC Purim spoof has made it into national media. One year their story about men with kipot going bald was in "The Observer" ="The Guardian's Sunday paper".

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is too funny! thank you for "being on your toes" and bringing this to us...
    Haaretz admitting a mistake that would be news worthy in and of itself and everyone would be sure that is the Purim joke!
    ---
    Daniela
    http://isreview1.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete