So uncle was not fed to the dogs - an astonishing example of the media echo chamber gone awry.

[malaise]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/06/story-kim-jong-un-uncle-fed-dogs-made-up
<snip>

Yet the story, which was first reported by a Hong Kong tabloid and then picked up in the western press, apparently originated with a satirical post on a Chinese social media network, turning a thinly-sourced horror story into an astonishing example of the media echo chamber gone awry.

The starving dogs version first appeared on 12 December in Wen Wei Po, a Beijing-friendly Hong Kong tabloid with a reputation for sensationalism. About two weeks later it was re-reported in English by the Singaporean news daily Straits Times, which took the piece as a barometer of souring Sino-North Korean ties. Late last week scores of western publications jumped on board, including NBC News, the Daily Mail, the New York Daily News, and the London Evening Standard.

Yet as the US blogger Trevor Powell pointed out on Monday, the original report lifted the story nearly word-for-word from an 11 December social media post by Pyongyang Choi Seongho, a China-based satirist with millions of followers. The background of the personality's page on Tencent Weibo, China's second most-popular microblog, shows a cartoon Kim Jong-un standing on a balcony flanked by military aides, his arms raised and his middle fingers extended.

Choi's post includes all of the grisly details that made their way into the American press: Jang and five of his aides were stripped naked, thrown into a giant cage, and "entirely devoured" by 120 Manchurian hunting dogs that had been starved for three days. Kim conducted the hour-long spectacle himself before an audience of 300 North Korean officials, it added.

[In_The_Wind]

1. huh

[MADem]

2. Well, the guy is dead anyway! Sounds like we got Onion'd outta China!

Revenge, perhaps, for the Onion article about the North Korean leader being the "Sexiest Man Alive?"

http://www.theonion.com/articles/kim-jongun-named-the-onions-sexiest-man-alive-for,30379/

[treestar]

4. lol at the Onion

The list from the past - yeah the Onion has terrific taste in men.

[malaise]

5. Too good

You're in fine form for 2014

[MADem]

6. Heh heh! nt

[TwilightGardener]

3. I think most westerners were pretty skeptical. Sounded crazy even for them.

That said, their "Onion" is some sick humor. "Packed naked into a cage with a hundred dogs and slowly mauled to death while others forced to watch...ha ha, just kidding!"

[NaturalHigh]

7. I was pretty sure this was BS.

Dear leader is crazy as hell, but this was too much even for him. Plus he has Rodman over there to keep him happy now.

[Drew Richards]

8. Yeah besides, everyone knows he strapped his uncle to a cannon and fired it himself...

[RandiFan1290]

9. Hmm. Not as popular as the original bullshit. Shocker! nt

[Trekologer]

10. This is what happens when the "news" uses Twitter and Facebook as sources instead of real journalism

The whole "news" organization is completely unnecessary; it can be replaced with a computer script.

[Demo_Chris]

11. I'm pretty sure he used a shark tank. nt

[Nye Bevan]

12. HA! Who called it? Who called it?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4273184

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4273296

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4271593

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024273336

[RandiFan1290]

13. A lot of us did

Long before you got around to it

[Nye Bevan]

14. I certainly didn't mean to detract from your achievement.

You should be very proud of yourself.