Sarcasm doesn't always translate well. When satirist Andy Borowitz wrote this column at the Huffington Post headlined "In Latest Compromise With GOP, Obama Agrees He Is a Muslim," the Saudi media utterly missed the joke. A respected newspaper, Al-Hayat, and website, Sabq.org, reported it as straight news, notes AFP.
"Obama doesn't mind coming out as a Muslim if that will satisfy the Republicans," read the newspaper's headline, while the website went with, "Obama: 'I'm ready to announce that I am a Muslim.'" If only they'd read to the bottom of Borowitz's column, the "quote" attributed to Julian Assange after his arrest—"I knew I shouldn't have signed up for Foursquare"—might have tipped them off that the whole thing was joke. Or maybe not. (More President Obama stories.)