Yahoo! News Shares Piece Falsely Claiming Controversial UN Hunger Article Was ‘Satirical’

Yahoo! News republished absurd claims that the United Nations deleted a 14-year old article seemingly promoting the economic benefits of world hunger because it was “satirical.” 

The 2008 article headlined “The Benefits of World Hunger” caused an eruption of comments on Twitter for seemingly defending certain aspects of hunger for global elites. However, the UN Chronicle released this July 6 tweet in an apparent attempt to cover up the story: “This article appeared in the UN Chronicle 14 years ago as an attempt at satire and was never meant to be taken literally.” Yahoo! News republished a NextShark article that apparently bought the UN’s excuse, hook, line and sinker. NextShark even cited retired University of Hawaii Professor George Kent’s previous publications as evidence that the whole thing was “political satire.” Kent, the author of the UN article that recently went viral on Twitter, told MRC Business that the “satirical” characterization was false. He stated unequivocally that his op-ed was “never intended as satire” via email. 

Page fact-checkers

“Research into Kent’s previous publications suggest that the article is actually a form of political satire, similar to Jonathan Swift’s satirical essay, ‘A Modest Proposal,’” NextShark reporter Chandler Treon wrote. Swift famously suggested in “A Modest Proposal” that poor Irish parents sell their children as food to wealthy families. Kent made it clear that his book was not intended to be satire. “Non, it was never meant to be satire,” the retired professor told MRC Business. “I did not hope that it would be read as praise for hunger. The main idea behind my point was that hunger exists in some places. That helps to explain why hunger is so persistent in many places.” [Emphasis added]. 

Twitter users criticized the UN’s decision to remove the article. A political commentator Mike Cernovich tweeted: “The UN removed a page from its site entitled – The Benefits of World Hunger[.] Fact checkers will say the page never existed.” Climate Depot Founder Marc Morano tweeted: “UN deletes article on ‘benefits’ of world hunger after CFACT reporting.” 

Morano also slammed the UN’s deceptive attempt to bury Kent’s article in exclusive comments to MRC Business: “The UN’s attempt to spin the article as satire is absurd and is nothing more than covering their behinds when they faced huge outcry over the article.”

Cernovich shared quotes from Kent’s article online. “For those of us at the high end of the social ladder, ending hunger globally would be a disaster. If there were no hunger in the world, who would plow the fields?Who would harvest our vegetables?“

Yahoo!News, NextShark and MRC Business did not reply to comments.

Conservatives being attacked. Reach out to ABC News by calling 818-460-7777, CBS News via 212-975-3243 and NBC News via 212-6644-6192 They must be held accountable for the UN’s eco-extreme policies and their truthfulness.

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