A Russian state broadcaster has fallen for an April Fool’s Day spoof in an embarrassing blunder about Britain building a new aircraft carrier. RT, formerly Russia Today, published a story based on a satirical article which appeared on the UK Defence Journal on Tuesday (April 1).
The journal’s tongue-in-cheek story was full of “absurd” claims aimed at amusing readers, including that the new HMS Prince Andrew would be equipped with “naval Typhoons” launched by catapult and cost taxpayers a staggering £987.6billion, nearly 20 times the Ministry of Defence’s budget.
Other hints it was a spoof include the ship having go-faster stripes and extra crayons. It also carried the hare-brained claim that HMS Prince Andrew would have a “theoretical edge over any known carrier fleet in existence, real or imagined”.
The joke was completely lost on RT, which took the ridiculous claims and appeared to present them as fact. It quoted an “expert” from the DMCS think tank as saying the decision to expand Britain’s fleet was a waste of money and lives.
RT wrote: “Brian Robertson, a senior analyst at the DMCS think tank, called the decision to expand the fleet ‘a waste of money and lives’. He stressed that one strike would turn the carrier into ‘a pile of scrap metal’.”
But UK Defence Journal points out the expert was fictional and DMCS stood for Daily Mail Comment Section.
The article had actually included the line: “Waste of funds & Human Life! One correctly placed Smart-Bomb will see Today’s heap of steel turn into Tomorrow’s heap of Scrap!”
George Allison, the spoof article’s author, said: “As part of our usual April Fool’s Day tradition, we published a clearly satirical piece about a fictional third aircraft carrier – HMS Prince Andrew – complete with absurd details like ‘go faster stripes’ and ‘crayons’.
“It was meant to be obviously fake and it was written to make people laugh. But there was also a secondary layer to it.
“We suspected that some outlets – particularly those eager to undermine the UK – might pick up the story without checking it properly.
“If they took it seriously, it would highlight a lack of basic editorial scrutiny. If they knew it was satire and published it anyway, it would say something more deliberate about their intent. Either outcome would be revealing.”
He explained this was exactly what happened, with Russian state media outlet RT presenting the story as real. Mr Allison said it showed how easily disinformation can spread.