Until just a few days ago, former Vice President of FIFA Jack Warner was apparently unaware that the popular American satire newspaper The Onion is not, in fact, real news.
While defending his tenure as FIFA's vice president in a video, Warner cited a recent fake report by The Onion that claimed FIFA, which is the principal governing body of international soccer competitions, had "frantically" announced that the United States would now be hosting The World Cup this year.
Warner was recently arrested on allegations of fraud and corruption in the FIFA organization. Warner created the video in hopes of defending his reputation.
"All of this has stemmed from the failed U.S. bid to host the World Cup," Warner said, using The Onion article as his primary source for his claims.
According to The New York Times, once it came to Warner's attention that The Onion article was not based on actual reporting, the video "disappeared without explanation from his website and social media accounts." An edited version of the video then reappeared, sans all references to The Onion.
This isn't the first time a public figure confused The Onion for a real newspaper.
In 2012, The Daily Beast compiled a list of world leaders who were duped by The Onion's reporting. It reads almost like a who's who of world politics. Everyone from The New York Times to Iran's state-run media fell for articles intended only as satire.
Though Warner's gaffe is certainly driven by at least a certain amount of gullibility, it also represents how the Internet has transformed the nature of American satire. A publication that was once distributed only in select American cities can now be read by an unassuming political leader in Iran who has zero context for the satirical nature of what they're reading.
And it's not just The Onion. As Emmett Rensin wrote in The New Republic last year, there has been a wave of satirical news sites that have sprung up online in the past few years. But while The Onion is intended exclusively as a humor and commentary website, Rensin argued that many of the new joke sites are a little more sinister.
Many of these new websites are, according to Rensin, "entirely devoid of jokes." The news is fake, but it isn't funny. And because it's coming from sources that don't have the name recognition that The Onion has, real reporters and avid Facebook sharers aren't always privy to the nature of the source. The intention, she argues, seems to be actual deception.
"For those who have fallen for these stories, the consequent humiliation can inoculate them against making the mistake a second time," Rensin wrote. "But you can’t vaccinate suckers as fast as they’re born."
So while it might be fun to laugh at corrupt FIFA executives, it's becoming increasingly apparent that the nature of the Internet's fascination with "fake news" can mean very real confusion for American audiences as well.
JJ Feinauer is a writer for Deseret News National. Email: jfeinauer@deseretdigital.com, Twitter: jjfeinauer.