NPR Shanghai correspondent Frank Langfitt sends in an update on one of this week's more amusing stories:
China's Web surfers have had a lot to say about how People's Daily Online — the internet version of the Communist Party's mouthpiece — got fooled into republishing a "story" by The Onion that declared North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is 2012"s "sexiest man alive."
On China's increasingly free-wheeling internet, thousands of users have ripped the state-run news site for falling for the joke.
"With such a low IQ, how can we expect People's Daily to represent the People?" one person wrote on Sina Weibo, China's most popular, Twitter-like site.
"Actually, People's Daily and The Onion are the same," wrote another.
It didn't help that People's Daily Online improved on the fake story by adding a real, 55-image, photo gallery of the cherubic dictator, including one of him appearing rakish on horseback.
But if you want to see the People's Daily's version for yourself, sadly, you can't anymore. People's Daily took the story down Wednesday morning.
"We have realized it is satirical," an editor who works on the site's South Korea channel told The Associated Press.
The Onion, naturally, had nothing but praise for the People's Daily Online.
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