The 6 Most Hilarious Ways Mainstream Media Failed at Google

6 At the BBC, The Future Is Now

Does the United Nations Security Council have a logo? That's the riddle some unidentified graphics jockey at the BBC had to solve while putting together a news story about Syria. It takes just a cursory amount of Googling to reveal that the answer to that question is a resounding "maybe."

Give the phrase "United Nations Security Council logo" a search yourself and you'll undoubtedly see this:

The problem is, if you just search for "United Nations logo," you'll find the exact same thing. But your boss at the Beebs told you to round up a United Nations Security Council logo. If you run that phrase through your Google machine, you'll find that the options aren't so narrow. In addition to the tranquil logo above, you also get this:

How do you decide which one to go with? The correct answer would be "Ask someone who knows more about United Nations logos than you do for advice." Unfortunately, the answer the nameless BBC employee in question landed on that day was something more along the lines of "Fuck it, flexing eagle it is."

While that's a fine answer to a whole host of questions, in this case it definitely was not, because that black-and-gold shield of badassery is the logo for the United Nations Space Command, which people with unlimited free time and the stomach to handle gallons of Mountain Dew Code Red in one sitting will immediately recognize as an entity that only exists within the Halo video game universe.

So, while the BBC anchor spoke solemnly about the U.N.'s handling of the carnage in Syria, the scene behind her looked like this:

A network spokesperson had this to say about the gaffe:

"BBC News makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all images broadcast, however very occasionally mistakes do happen. Unfortunately an incorrect logo was used during a segment on last week's News at One bulletin and we apologize to viewers for the mistake."

For those not familiar, the Halo-verse, as probably no one calls it, revolves around an interstellar war between humans and a group of aliens known as the Covenant who worship an ancient civilization known as the Forerunners who were wiped out during something called the parasitic flood.

If there's anything the BBC can take comfort in regarding this debacle, it's that the above paragraph could just as easily be describing the situation in Syria as far as most of the willfully ignorant masses are concerned.

5 Sarah Palin Goes Really, Really Rogue

From a Planned Parenthood Abortionplex to the Department of Defense announcing support for "military bronies," the Internet is rife with farcical news stories. While many people have no problem identifying and enjoying this type of humor, Facebook is chock-full of dullards who post and rage against these obviously bogus reports. But unlike your annoying aunt or that "friend" you haven't seen since high school clogging your social media streams with unfunny memes and illogical rants, some people should actually know better.

People like Suzi Parker, for instance. According to her bio, Parker is a political and cultural journalist and author of Sex in the South: Unbuckling the Bible Belt. What's not mentioned is that she also appears to be devoid of the ability to detect satire.

In a column she wrote for the Washington Post about former VP candidate and Tea Party prom queen Sarah Palin's plans to join the Al-Jazeera news network, Parker warned that the "news" of the pairing was "a cautionary tale about what can happen when politics and celebrity meet."

Here's hoping that's just journalist-speak for "fake news," because that's exactly (and quite obviously) the best way to describe this "story." It's definitely not outside the Palin wheelhouse to do dumb things, but her joining Al-Jazeera seems like the kind of news even non-journalistic types like us would find hard to believe.

Nevertheless, Parker posted the piece based solely on a single report. Her source? The Daily Currant, a site that describes itself as the "global satirical newspaper of record." Even if that description was too subtle of a clue that this story was nonsense, the Daily Currant story also contains the following purported Palin quote:

"I met with the folks at Al-JaJizzraa and they told me they reach millions of devoutly religious people who don't watch CBS or CNN. That tells me they don't have a liberal bias."

So Suzi Parker is not only bad at sniffing out a fake news story, but wouldn't recognize a jizz joke if it hit her in the face.

4 A Fox Affiliate Releases the (Insanely Racist and Fake) Names of Asiana Flight 214 Pilots

Reporting on the aftermath of a tragedy is a delicate affair, so when a Fox News anchor told viewers that her station had just learned the names of the four pilots on the Asiana Airlines flight that had recently crashed in San Francisco, there was a palpable sense of sadness in her voice.

And then she read the names: Sum Ting Wong, Wi Tu Lo, Ho Lee Fuk, and Bang Ding Ow.

Even one of those names should set off an alarm in the head of anyone who's ever placed a prank call to Mike Hunt or Connie Lyn Gust. Those names are obviously about as legit as an email from a Nigerian prince, but this story somehow sailed through every fact checking mechanism your local Fox affiliate has in place (probably none).

And the blame can't fall solely on Fox News. The National Transportation Safety Board actually confirmed the names before the station aired them.

Fox News KTVU issued an on-air apology admitting to several mistakes, including the failure to phonetically sound the names out, an excuse that's "Sofa King re-Todd it" I feel dumber just having had to retype it.

The NTSB issued their own version of an apology, placing the blame squarely on a summer intern who "acted outside the scope of his authority."

So, the next time you see a fiasco like this unfold live before your eyes and ask that inevitable "Don't they have anyone checking this stuff?" question, just remember that the answer is "Yes, and they pay that person nothing."

3 We'll Never Forget Ku ... Knut

By the time of Knut the polar bear's untimely death at the age of 4, he had amassed an international following that would make a Kardashian envious. Born at the Berlin Zoological Garden and rejected at birth by his mother, Knut was the first polar bear cub to survive past infancy at the zoo in more than 30 years. Raised by human handlers, Knut soon became a major tourist attraction that quickly blossomed into international superstardom. So brightly did his star shine, little Knut was responsible for making the Berlin Zoo profitable for the first time in its 163-year history.

The peak of "Knutmania" included sharing the cover of Vanity Fair with Leonardo DiCaprio, inspiring "Cuddly Knut," a raspberry-flavored gummy bear, and starring in the eponymous film Knut & Friends. While he should be remembered for these and other endeavors, or for the joy he brought to so many people around the world, it's a goof by a Chicago news station that will most likely be his lasting legacy.

Thanks to the unfortunate transposition of two letters and a news staff in dire need of a proofreader, it appears Knut's most infamous star turn will be as an Internet punchline.

2 Los Angeles Local News Shows Hockey the Respect It Deserves

Hometown pride! Los Angeles has it! Sort of! When three major sports teams from the city of angels were all in contention for championship berths, there was cause for some hometown horn tooting. NBC4 News Los Angeles reported on the playoff trifecta that included the Los Angeles Clippers, Lakers, and Kings.

There was one problem, though. Instead of a Los Angeles Kings logo, they used a Sacramento Kings logo. Of course, not all sports are created equal, so it isn't much of a surprise that the hockey team, the Rodney Dangerfield of professional sports, is the one that got shafted.

Still, this is a simple mistake. You'd have to be a pretty devoted sports fan to catch that error, right? Let's have a look!

Not only is "Sacramento" emblazoned across the top, but the logo clearly contains a basketball. Sure, it also appears to contain two javelins, which are native to neither sport, but still, there are only two words there, and 50 percent of them are clearly the name of a city that is not Los Angeles.

To avoid any future confusion, representatives for the Los Angeles Kings put out a primer to clarify things for the locals.

To which the locals replied, "Whatever, we still don't care about hockey."

1 Neil Armstrong Is Confused With Other People (Regularly)

When former astronaut and first man to walk on the moon Neil Armstrong passed away at the age of 82, we lost a true American hero. Or, to hear the media tell it, we lost at least three.

First, People magazine threw together a glossy tribute that featured a two-page spread of a completely different astronaut on a different space mission.

That's John Young on his 1972 Apollo 16 mission. While it's hard to tell the two men apart, seeing as how they're both dressed like an MTV Video Music Award, that picture does feature a lunar rover. Those weren't used in moon landings until 1971.

Not only was this not the first or last goof surrounding the death of Neil Armstrong, it wasn't even the only one to involve a dude with the last name Young. Check this out:

It's unclear how NBC managed to confuse the salty singer-songwriter rock legend and the world's most famous astronaut. Besides having the same first name, the only other similarity between the two is that one of them walked on the moon and the other released an album called Harvest Moon. Definitely not enough of a bond to excuse a mistake like this one.

This is an insult to not only America's first true space hero, but all that Neil Young has accomplished. As the guy who wrote "Sweet Caroline," isn't Neil Young famous enough in his own right for NBC to know better?

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