Well, the sun has apparently not exploded. Whether or not the sky is falling remains to be seen.
The Athens Banner-Herald on Monday was forced to post a retraction to its website saying, “the sun has not exploded” after mistakenly announcing “the sun just exploded.”
The website of the Athens, Ga. newspaper, OnlineAthens.com, said an “unauthorized updated news item” was posted after the site was the “victim of an online miscue.” The paper said that the incident was being investigated.
“We’re currently trying to determine what happened to ensure it doesn’t happen again,“ the Athens Banner-Herald’s Director of Digital Joel Kight said. “And to our knowledge, the sun has not exploded.”
The message that was posted to the site is below, in its entirety:
This is the emergency broadcast system. Please ignore this message as always. BTW, the sun just exploded, and we’re all about to die.
The mistaken message quickly spread on social media.
The sun has NOT exploded. Repeat, the sun has NOT exploded http://t.co/QnHf1Zuw7J Or maybe it has. We’re always a few minutes behind.
— James Iry (@jamesiry) June 15, 2015
Because having the sun explode is a bad way to start the week. http://t.co/yxM66jTorz pic.twitter.com/wi3eYsGl8S
— LA Daily Mirror (@LATdailymirror) June 15, 2015
So relieved that the sun hasn’t exploded and we’re not all about to die: http://t.co/lMuCsKFKvu
— Ely Portillo (@ESPortillo) June 15, 2015
One Twitter user even commented on Kight’s statement.
I’m sorry, but not all statements have to be hedged.
“And to our knowledge, the sun has not exploded”
http://t.co/Zb4MaBR7Vl …
— Peter Gleick (@PeterGleick) June 15, 2015
h/t Romenesko
TPM composite. Images via AP and Athens Banner-Herald.