John Fleming, Republican Congressman, Falls For Onion Planned Parenthood Joke

We can't make this stuff up.

John Fleming, a GOP congressman from Louisiana, fell for a months-old joke on Monday when he cited an article from The Onion as a real news source.

Fleming shared a link on Facebook to an article from the satirical newspaper headlined "Planned Parenthood Opens $8 Billion Abortionplex."

"More on Planned Parenthood, abortion by the wholesale," he wrote.

The GOP congressman isn't the first to fall victim to an Onion joke. When the abortion piece was first published last year, hordes of angry Facebook users took the article at face value. In 2002, a Chinese newspaper infamously republished an Onion story about Congress demanding a new Capitol building with a retractable dome.

Fleming has since removed the post from his Facebook page, but the Daily What posted a screenshot, courtesy of Literally Unbelievable.

The Louisiana Republican is a vocal opponent of abortion and Planned Parenthood. As the Hill points out, Fleming voted to prohibit federal funding of Planned Parenthood and has called legal abortion "a perversion of law."

According to Politico, Onion editor Joe Randazzo said he was "delighted to hear that Rep. Fleming is a regular reader of America’s Finest News Source and doesn’t bother himself with The New York Times, Washington Post, the mediums of television and radio, or any other lesser journalism outlets."

Comments

[Texas Technoman]

07:34 AM on 02/09/2012

The guy is a doctor, and his "business" is a medical practice.......

[MosesDidItBest]

12:59 AM on 02/09/2012

John Fleming is dumb enough to be an immediate member of Rick Santorum's
family.

[T Trump]

11:00 PM on 02/08/2012

The "Who" said it best "WE DON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN!" Evidently "The Onion" can fool John. Is it really true there are pink elephants in the bars in Louisiana? Is it true trickle down economics really works? Is it true "The Onion" writes fake news reports.

[marylandtravelinman]

08:25 PM on 02/08/2012

Faux News has taught their viewers that to think critically is unAmerican. So if someone says the moon is made of cheese or a multiplex abortion center is opening up, I don't have the responsibility to ask myself, is that even possible. All the answers are in the Bible so no critical thinking is required.

[Morgantheaxe]

08:13 PM on 02/08/2012

First the onion didn't "fool" this guy. This guy is just a fool. He is one of the last people on the planet Earth that doesn't know that a story on The Onion is satirical. He didn't fall for a joke. He was just a tool that chose to quote a story for a satire website as fact.

[angel12]

04:48 PM on 02/08/2012

It takes ignorant voters to elect such a plant. That's why Repub/Teapotters are constantly undermining public education.

[hermanita85]

09:57 PM on 02/17/2012

Thank you! I've been saying this for years!

[gtg007w]

09:26 AM on 02/08/2012

You know what's more scary - this guy's in congress and couldn't discern whether the article was satire or fact - that should make everyone concerned about how he's filtering sources when educating himself in the issues he's not familiar with to make decisions on voting for bills, policies, etc.

[extremelymoderate]

02:54 PM on 02/08/2012

What's even more scary is that this guy won an election.

[LegalCat]

09:25 AM on 02/08/2012

The part that really bothers me about this is "by the wholesale." I'm a hip, groovy, with-it kinda guy myself, so *I* certainly know that The Onion is all about satire and that things posted on it are therefore unlikely to be true. But I can readily understand that some people might not know that. The Internet is not the world, and not knowing that The Onion is a satirical site is not equivalent to not knowing where Florida is or something like that. Plenty of people probably don't know what The Onion is. My mom, may she rest in peace, had no idea, because she never used the Internet, and she wasn't a stupid woman. I'm totally ready to give Congressman Fleming the benefit of the doubt and assume that he's too busy with important legislative matters to surf the web. That would make him a better congressman, really.

On the other hand, "by the wholesale" is not English. Abortions can be by the dozen, or by the book, or by the sea, or even by the time I get to Phoenix, but they can't be "by the wholesale" because "wholesale" is an adjective, so it can't be the object of a preposition. There can be wholesale abortions, and there can be retail abortions, but "by the wholesale" is simply gibberish, and anyone who would post such a linguistic monstrosity on a public site is, in fact, a moron.

[rww549]

01:01 AM on 02/09/2012

Anyone who read such an article and believed it is a moron. It doesn't matter if it was in the Onion or any where else. Such silly descriptions of an abortion complex, a silly concept to start with, is obviously a farce. A person who does not immediately realize that should not be let out without a responsible person to watch over him. Also, I don't think any publication can claim to be mistake free. Proof readers make mistakes, and in this case, no one but an grumpy english teacher or someone trying to defent the subject of the article by critisizing the grammer would care

[DuQuan Hussein Jackson]

07:45 PM on 02/09/2012

I hope your misspellings are intentional. Say what you will about "grumpy english teachers", proper grammar and spelling reflect self respect, intelligence and education. In addition, in the era of spell check, there is no excuse - other than laziness or willful ignorance - to misspell words in a electronic forum.

[apathyman]

08:01 AM on 02/08/2012

And people actually voted this guy into office? I wonder how dumb they must feel right now?

[angel12]

04:51 PM on 02/08/2012

Hey---it is Louisianan. Expect nothing. At least this "Doctor" hasn't gone to prison yet.

[biffbaff]

07:37 AM on 02/08/2012

Come on, he meant this as a jokey joke....wink wink.

[dovelove]

12:59 AM on 02/08/2012

He had to be from Louisiana.

[torgman3]

12:55 AM on 02/08/2012

Anyone with a toupee that bad can be fooled easily.

[John Bollen]

11:18 PM on 02/07/2012

Proof that righties dont research. They just find "stories" that fit their pre-conceived beliefs and post it as "proof"

[rowdiman]

10:43 PM on 02/07/2012

..and rational adults wonder how they could possibly believe the kenyan, marxist, socialist, blah.blah..blah?

[Reyeshawk13]

10:20 PM on 02/07/2012

I would say you can't make this stuff up but, of course, "The Onion" did. This guy probably thought Swift's "A Modest Proposal" was meant seriously.

[Joseph J Schuler]

02:34 PM on 01/03/2013

A great essay. Sadly, too many modern readers would be apoplectic reading it.