Doh! First China was fooled by The Onion into thinking Kim Jong Un was the "Sexiest Man Alive", and now North Korea actually thinks that he's Time magazine's Man of the Year.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the Korean Central News Agency reported Tuesday that Mr. Kim was selected by Time subscribers, "including politicians, businessmen, artistes, sports persons and announcers" as Time's "man of this year."
Obviously this didn't happen—this is, once again, a group of 4chan tricksters gaming the system and pushing Kim to the top with 5.6 million votes. As sister site Gizmodo pointed out, 4chan actually manipulated the entire poll so that it read "KJU GAS CHAMBERS". Bet the Korean Central didn't report that bit!
After acknowledging the poll's results were manipulated, Time said its editors would select the winner and make an announcement on December 19.
There's a fine line between being duped and propaganda, but if this trend keeps up, who knows, maybe the North Korean state media will stop taking things at face value and start asking important questions. Questions like whether unicorns really exist.
North Korea Duped by Hackers' Attack on Time Poll
(Top photo: Gizmodo)
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