Are you familiar with the phrase, “I will not dignify that with a response”?
Some might argue that would have been a better approach for officials to take after a ridiculous “news” story about the Surabaya Zoo became widely reported on in the Indonesian media.
If “World News Daily Report” sounds like a fake name for a fake news organization to you than – ding ding ding – you’re apparently smarter than a lot of media outlets in Indonesia.
WNDR is a satirical website which includes a disclaimer stating: All characters appearing in the articles in this website – even those based on real people – are entirely fictional and any resemblance between them and any persons, living, dead, or undead is purely a miracle.
Despite how obviously made-up the story was, several Indonesian media outlets (stories have already been deleted, links go to Google cached copies) repeated the WNDR’s ridiculous tale uncritically and without mentioning the site’s satirical nature. Perhaps they knew it was fake and just wanted the clicks. Or maybe they actually believed the story.
The story became so widespread over the weekend that officials at the Surabaya Zoo saw the need to make an official statement to the media denying it.
“We are protesting the media in the country that has uploaded this hoax news,” said the managing director of the Surabaya Zoo, Aschta Boestani Tajudin, as quoted by Kompas.
Officials told the media that there is no female orangutan named Marlyn at the Surabaya Zoo and that the names of zookeepers and board officials mentioned in the article were also made up.
“Also, it is common knowledge that two different species are unlikely to produce offspring, even if their DNA is almost 100 percent similar,” the director said.
(Dear lord, we hope that is common knowledge in Indonesia…)
Aschta did confirm one thing that was sort-of true about the story – the orangutan in the header picture does in fact live in the Surabaya Zoo. But her name is actually Dora. And Dora is not pregnant, just obese.
Aschta went on to say that the news was a hoax spread by those who want to destroy the good name of the Surabaya Zoo.
The Surabaya Zoo was infamously known as the “Zoo of Death” a few years ago after shocking stories about animals dying after being severely mistreated hit the international media, including the sorry tale of one poor giraffe who was found dead with 20kg of plastic in its stomach.
Since then, the Surabaya Zoo has seen a change in management and conditions have improved. But apparently its reputation hasn’t improved that much, given that a lot of people were ready to believe that one of their zookeepers had impregnated an orangutan.
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