Buzz Aldrin parody interview
On 3 July, 2017, The Rochdale Herald published the article Buzz Aldrin says not punching Trump is his greatest achievement. The piece is a parody interview between a Herald journalist and Buzz Aldrin following his 30 June attendance at an executive order signing ceremony by U.S President Donald Trump, which re-established the National Space Council. With the first paragraph reading: "Buzz Aldrin has suprised many today by saying that his greatest achievement is not punching Donald Trump. Mr Aldrin attended an event where the President gave a rambling word salad of a speech." [9]
The article, which is an allusion to an incident where Aldrin punched a moon landing conspiracy theorist, was widely circulated on social media. It was eventually fact-checked by Snopes on 6 July. 2017. [4] [10]
Massive Mohammed hoax
On 13 August, 2017, the site published an article titled Big Ben to be renamed Massive Mohammed from 2018, where they announced that Big Ben would be renamed to "reflect the city’s growing diversity". Further adding, "Due to health and safety fears, ‘Massive Mo’ will be silenced during the four-year renovation period, however, [...] large speakers installed at the top of the tower will instead play the Muslim call to prayer every hour upon the hour." The article concludes with a fake quote from the office of London mayor Sadiq Khan [11] :
When asked to comment on the project, a spokesman for London Mayor Sadiq Khan said, "What a load of utter bollocks. You’ve made this whole thing up. It’s like the ‘halal countdown’ thing all over again. Now if you’ll excuse me, Mr. Khan has a meeting with the Islamic Council in five minutes about their plans to turn St. Paul’s into a mosque. That dome is going to look glorious in gold!”
The article was shared on Facebook, where it received sharp backlash from users believing the headline to be true. [2] In an article for ShortList, Dave Fawbert opined that the piece was "Winding up racists", [12] as many users responded to the post citing it as an example of a purported loss of cultural heritage. [13]
