China Thinks WaPo Was An Accidental "1-Click-Buy"

Here's what America found out Monday: Amazon bigwig Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post, spelling a new era for the heavyweight institution. Here's what China found out on Monday: Amazon founder (and user) Jeff Bezos accidentally clicked " buy" on WaPo during a spot of online shopping.

Sounds familiar? Yeah, that's because a New Yorker satire joked about just that after the $250 million sale. China's official press agency, Xinhua, read the satire as fact and republished the piece in its entirety.

Here are some tidbits from Andy Borowitz's piece poking fun at Amazon:

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, told reporters today that his reported purchase of the Washington Post was a “gigantic mix-up,” explaining that he had clicked on the newspaper by mistake.

“I guess I was just kind of browsing through their website and not paying close attention to what I was doing,” he said. “No way did I intend to buy anything.”

Mr. Bezos said he had been on the phone with the Post’s customer service for the better part of the day trying to unwind his mistaken purchase, but so far “they’ve really been giving me the runaround.”

According to Mr. Bezos, “I keep telling them, I don’t know how it got in my cart. I don’t want it. It’s like they’re making it impossible to return it.”

Well, at least it's the first time a mix-up of this nature has happened in Chinese media. Oh, wait.

There was that "Kim Jong Un: Sexiest Person Alive" photo spread after The Onion officially named him as such, and for International Day Against Homophobia, a highly reputable National Enquirer article attesting to Hillary Clinton's bisexuality was reprinted by China's Global Post. Before that, two satirical Daily Current articles were reprinted in China's The 21st Century Business Herald (sample article: "North Korea Missiles Test Delayed By Windows Glitch".)

We're guessing there's a growing market in Chinese media for someone, anyone, who understands sarcasm.