http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2161795/Thats-vegetable-Chinese-TV-reporter-left-red-faced-mistaking-male-sex-toy-rare-mushroom.html

A young Chinese reporter is mortified after mistaking a sex toy for a rare mushroom in a television report.

Villagers from Liucunbu, a rural community outside western Chinese city of Xi'an, discovered the sex toy while drilling a new well shaft.

Confused about what they had found, they alerted the local news station,Xi'an TV station, which immediately sent young female reporter Yunfeng Ye to the scene.

Arriving at the village, she then did an in-depth piece about the unidentified 'meaty' mushroom, including numerous close-ups.

Describing the 'mushroom' Ye commented: 'We can see there is something like a mouth; and on the other side there is a hole that connects all the way through to the other end. It is very smooth. It feels very much like meat.'

She claimed that it was a rare medicinal 'Taisui' mushroom, which needs very specific conditions in which to grow.

However, following the broadcast numerous watchers called up the TV station to say that the mystery 'mushroom' was actually a sex toy for men.

When users watched the video online, many were mystidied as to how the mistake was made.

One user wrote 'How do you not know the difference between silicone and an organic fungus??' and another stated: 'That does not look anything like a mushroom - do these people not do their research?'

The day after the programme aired the news station posted an apology on Sina Weibo, a Chinese blogging website.

'Our program last night made everyone laugh,' the apology said, expressing regret for an 'uncomfortable and misleading' report.

'Our reporter is very young and sheltered.'

Just... wow. That reporter sure checks her sources, she may give the BBC a run for their money. /sarcasm

So what do you think? Escapist?

Note: pictures in the source. For the video, you need to search for it. I am very sure a video of a sex toy is against Escapist rules.

That reporter is never going to live that down, but hopefully her phallus-identifying skills have improved.

ultrachicken:
That reporter is never going to live that down, but hopefully her phallus-identifying skills have improved.

Its actually a fake double ended vagina/ass. She really didn't think a mushroom with heads on both ends was strange.

Ultratwinkie:

ultrachicken:
That reporter is never going to live that down, but hopefully her phallus-identifying skills have improved.

Its actually a fake double ended vagina/ass. She really didn't think a mushroom with heads on both ends was strange.

This story just keeps getting better and better.

Ah, Daily Mail, the most reliable source since news stands stopped putting The Onion next to the New Yorker.

When villagers drilling a well shaft found the object, they called a local TV station, which sent over a reporter to cover the discovery. They thought they had discovered a rare fungus.

For her defense, out of those two possibilities what would you rather expect to find in a well shaft?

Am I the only one desperate to know how it got buried there in the first place?

I can't even-

Quaxar:
Ah, Daily Mail, the most reliable source since news stands stopped putting The Onion next to the New Yorker.

When villagers drilling a well shaft found the object, they called a local TV station, which sent over a reporter to cover the discovery. They thought they had discovered a rare fungus.

For her defense, out of those two possibilities what would you rather expect to find in a well shaft?

I had to choose the Dailymail because they had less pictures of the toy itself. I thought this was the most tame picture, since you could only see a hole.

There were better sources, but rules are rules.

Ultratwinkie:

Quaxar:
Ah, Daily Mail, the most reliable source since news stands stopped putting The Onion next to the New Yorker.

When villagers drilling a well shaft found the object, they called a local TV station, which sent over a reporter to cover the discovery. They thought they had discovered a rare fungus.

For her defense, out of those two possibilities what would you rather expect to find in a well shaft?

I had to choose the Dailymail because they had less pictures of the toy itself. I thought this was the most tame picture, since you could only see a hole.

There were better sources, but rules are rules.

Sure, there are other sources and I didn't really doubt that happened... but you know the old saying: "Never miss an opportunity to bash the Daily Mail".

LordFish:
Am I the only one desperate to know how it got buried there in the first place?

My thoughts exactly. Who buried it out there... and why?

I Mistook a vibrator for a laser pointer once.. so i guess its easily done :P

Goofguy:

My thoughts exactly. Who buried it out there... and why?

This just in, apparently Chinese sex toys aren't manufactured, but are in fact mined from the ground as a natural resource...

Powereaver:
I Mistook a vibrator for a laser pointer once.. so i guess its easily done :P

Lemme Guess; That's your story and you're sticking to it. ;P

Giftfromme:
Her dildo identifying skills have now mushroomed.

It was a fake vagina.

LordFish:

Goofguy:

My thoughts exactly. Who buried it out there... and why?

This just in, apparently Chinese sex toys aren't manufactured, but are in fact mined from the ground as a natural resource...

Powereaver:
I Mistook a vibrator for a laser pointer once.. so i guess its easily done :P

Lemme Guess; That's your story and you're sticking to it. ;P

100% truthful! looked like a laser pointer too.. that was the scary thing :P

Quaxar:
Ah, Daily Mail, the most reliable source since news stands stopped putting The Onion next to the New Yorker.

When villagers drilling a well shaft found the object, they called a local TV station, which sent over a reporter to cover the discovery. They thought they had discovered a rare fungus.

For her defense, out of those two possibilities what would you rather expect to find in a well shaft?

I know.
I'd expect the shaft to be inside, not the other way around.

Ultratwinkie:

'Our reporter is very young and sheltered.'

I'll say! She doesn't even know how to work Mien shaft!

Powereaver:

LordFish:

Goofguy:

My thoughts exactly. Who buried it out there... and why?

This just in, apparently Chinese sex toys aren't manufactured, but are in fact mined from the ground as a natural resource...

Powereaver:
I Mistook a vibrator for a laser pointer once.. so i guess its easily done :P

Lemme Guess; That's your story and you're sticking to it. ;P

100% truthful! looked like a laser pointer too.. that was the scary thing :P

Exactly HOW did you discover it wasn't?

Captcha: ticked off
Yes that's one more thread pun'd

Couldn't tell a fungus from a sex toy? I guess there's mush room for improving her knowledge of the subject, then.

OT: Thats hilarious. And pretty sad. And, looking at the pictures, it does look kinda like a mushroom. I mean, there are wierder looking ones in the woods near me.

Isn't Daily Mail one of the least reliable of the more well known news providers?

the best part was that they claimed it was a Ling-Zhi mushroom a.k.a. the mushroom of immortality

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingzhi_mushroom
http://www.azmacare.com/lingzhi-mushroom-of-immortality/

i am asking myself if someone tried to suck out the 'marrow' to gain said immortality...

Clearing the Eye:
Isn't Daily Mail one of the least reliable of the more well known news providers?

yes but these kind of news only serve to fuel the readers schadenfreude.
i.e. it is not news worthy.

So that's where I left it!

OT: Considering where it was found - underground by people who probably didn't know such things even exist - and how it could look somewhat like a mushroom if you miss a few things, I guess it's sort of an understandable mistake. Still hilarious.

So I take it those guy aren't as lonely as some people out there to mistaken that toy as a mushroom.

Not very much reaction, huh?

As for why bury it... I dunno.

From a distance, I could forgive her for not knowing what it was. It certainly did look quite strange.

But on a closer inspection of the "mushroom heads", one end clearly looks like a butthole and the other like a coochie-coo. Really makes you wonder how someone can screw up like that.

Maybe this is one of those rare treasures that actually wasn't made in China.

The comment "An artifact from the Wang dynasty." made me lol 'til I cried.

But now we have proof of molemen!

Powereaver:
I Mistook a vibrator for a laser pointer once.. so i guess its easily done :P

Both things will have your eye out.

I heard she mistook a viagra for paracetamol once and it lodged in her throat....

She had a stiff neck all day (budum tish).

This is just about the worst thing that I can think of to happen to a reporter. The fact that she did the report thinking that it was a mushroom absolutely baffles me considering that it is so obviously not a mushroom (there is no stem, and it has a vagina on it). I actually feel quite bad for her, as its highly likely her co-workers will be like "Hey (insert name here) you want to identify my mushroom?".