The AFU and Urban Legend Archive
Politics
 baghdad betty




From: jmbay@leland.Stanford.EDU (Joseph Michael Bay)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Baghdad Betty
Date: 27 Jan 1998 00:58:20 -0800

>From the FAQ:

F.   `Baghdad Betty' told US army that Bart Simpson was sleeping with 
     their wives.

But there's nothing on how the story was started, etc. BUT, on the web site of FAIR (fairness and accuracy in reporting, a great group), there is this:

The New York Times' editorial page (1/14/91) reported that "Baghdad Betty," an Iraqi government propaganda broadcaster, had told U.S. troops: "G.I., you should be home.... While you're away, movie stars are taking your women. Robert Redford is dating your girlfriend. Tom Selleck is kissing your lady.... Bart Simpson is making love to your wife."

When George Bush called Iraqi radio "ridiculous," the editorial said, "he couldn't know how right he was." But the joke was on the Times: The story it gleefully reported as fact was actually a joke Johnny Carson told on the Tonight Show (8/22/90). On Jan. 31 1990, Carson said that his joke had been "reported as a fact on CNN, Entertainment Tonight, Garrick Utley's Year-End Wrap-Up [on NBC], and in this issue of Time magazine [1/21/91]." In Carson's original joke, it's dad Homer Simpson instead of Bart -- a slightly more plausible scenario, since Bart is eight years old.

(end fair use)

The page quoted is
http://www.igc.apc.org/fair/extra/best-of-extra/gulf-war-not-true.html

Sorry about the formatting.

Joe "Mother of all wild and wacky stuff" Bay

--
Joe Bay Leland Stanford Junior University I g o t y o u r r e c e p t o r R I G H T H E R E Putting the "harm" in "Molecular Pharmacology" since 1998


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