A New York Times article claiming that a whole load of watermelons were found in space turned out to be fake and people are disappointed.
The article, which said the melons were creating a “rise in fruit aliens”, now links to a statement saying it was published in error and appears to have been made to test the publication’s content management system.
“Earlier today, a mock article intended for a testing system was published on our site in error,” a spokesperson for The New York Times told HuffPost. “The article has since been removed,” they added.
In case you want a taste of the melony action, an archived copy of the story was found and it contained key lines such as:
“The FBI declined to comment on reports of watermelons raining down but confirmed that kiwis have been intercepted. This story is terribly boring.”
And:
“Watermelon taste good, police say.”
Hard-hitting journalism, then.
But reacting to the publication’s clarification, people were disappointed that it wasn’t real:
I, for one, would be very interested in watermelons from Mars 🍉 https://t.co/lgyoN8G1ar
— Chris Taylor (@christaylor_nyc) June 8, 2021
It's not on the Internet Archive but if anyone does have a copy of the rest of the article, I would absolutely LOVE to see it
— Jon Christian (follow for chaos) (@Jon_Christian) June 8, 2021
What's happening at the NYT pic.twitter.com/Ff5L24zZNk
— Jon Christian (follow for chaos) (@Jon_Christian) June 8, 2021
The people need to know. #watermelons https://t.co/4znqMPoNJk
— ElleCue (@ElleCue) June 8, 2021
Put it back up, cowards pic.twitter.com/bJ3prvSuJR
— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) June 8, 2021
What a shame. Still, seems that the team at the New York Times know how to make testing an article fun.
