Back in July, The Onion ran an article entitled "US Soothes Upset Netanyahu With Shipment of Ballistic Missiles." This was a joke. It’s what The Onion does best.
"Bibi always gets a little cranky when he sees us talking to Iran, but a few dozen short-range surface-to-surface missiles usually cheer him right up," the article read.
But one day later, the satirical became factual, when the Obama administration offered a military upgrade to Israel to soothe concerns over the Iran nuclear deal.
But The Onion’s predictive powers go back even further. Back in 2003, the site ran a mock discussion between two fictional experts. The title:
"This War Will Destabilize The Entire Mideast Region And Set Off A Global Shockwave of Anti-Americanism vs. No It Won’t."
Arguing for the destabilization side, "Nathan Eckert" claimed that "If you thought Osama bin Laden was bad, just wait until the countless children who become orphaned by US bombs in the coming weeks are all grown up," Eckert said.
"From this war, a million bin Ladens will bloom."
Given the current state of the world 12 years later, this appears to be the case. The power vacuum left after the US invasion of Iraq helped lead to the creation of the self-proclaimed Islamic State terrorist group, which then managed to spread its tentacles into Syria.
"A war against Iraq is not only morally wrong, it will be an unmitigated disaster," Eckert’s argument concludes.
The rebuttal?
"No it won’t. It just won’t. None of that will happen," the fictional Bob Sheffer argued. "'A war against Iraq is not only morally wrong, it will be an unmitigated disaster?' Sorry, no, I disagree."
In addition to his accurately predicting the future, The Onion has interacted with the real in other surprising, unpredictable ways. In 2011, the New York Times was forced to issue a retraction when it fell for an Onion photograph that showed President Barack Obama on the cover of teen magazine Tiger Beat.
In 2000, an article entitled "Harry Potter Books Spark Rise in Satanism Among Children" caused a mild panic among parents. To this day, worried parents still quote that article when voicing witchcraft concerns associated with the best-selling fantasy series.
