An Onion spoof claiming that rural Americans preferred Iranian President Ahmadinejad to Barak Obama was lifted from the wire and run as a serious story. The Fars news agency realized its mistake, pulled the story and apologized. The editor in chief said that he believed that US politicians are unpopular in the US and therefore thought the story was credible.

“Although it does not justify our mistake, we do believe that if a free opinion poll is conducted in the US, a majority of Americans would prefer anyone outside the US political system to President Barack Obama and American statesmen,” the Fars story quoted the unnamed editor as saying. -Fars Editor in Chief

Maybe so, but an expert would have known the story was fake when it claimed Americans knew the head of state of another country.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19778656