A conservative radio host fell for a story about world-famous astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson that recently appeared on a parody website.
Neal Larson of KID News Radio in Idaho Falls, Idaho, called Tyson a “horse’s astrophysicist” for supposedly mocking a 12-year-old girl who said she wanted to live on Jupiter.
“He ridiculed her in the midst of a crowd, then later, several times, on Twitter,” Larson wrote in a column for the Times-News. “That told me everything I needed to know about Neil deGrasse Tyson.”
Just one problem: It never happened.
The story Larson was referring to came from Clickhole, a satirical “clickbait” website run by The Onion, which itself operates on parody.
Oops.
Larson’s column ripping Tyson appeared on the Times-News website. The paper also published Tyson’s response setting the record straight on all of the factual errors Larson made.
UPDATE 8/24/16: Larson has apologized to Tyson on his radio show.
(h/t RawStory)
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