WASHINGTON, D.C. (The Adobo Chronicles) – How the world (universe) turns! News satire sites are often accused of perpetuating hoaxes that many gullible netizens are quick to believe or pass on as fact.

Today, the National Association of Satire Writers (NASW) discovered that  NASA’s announcement about the discovery of flowing water on Mars was a hoax. Even Rush Limbaugh said so on his syndicated radio program!

The announcement was beamed live on the Internet supposedly from the NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C.  As a matter of fact, it was broadcast from a sound stage inside Universal Studios in Hollywood.

Now we know why not a single news or cable network, outside of NASA TV, covered the NASA announcement live.

It turns out that the whole exercise was staged by 20th Century Fox, distributor of the upcoming film, ‘The Martian’ starring Matt Damon.

The new film is about an astronaut who was a member of the crew  sent to explore the red planet and was somehow left behind, for dead.  Damon’s character actually survived on Mars.

The supposed NASA announcement was part of a multi-million promotion by 20th Century Fox to create a buzz for the film, hoping to make it a record-breaking blockbuster for the fall.

In exchange for participation in the hoax announcement, NASA will receive millions of dollars in donation from 20th Century Fox.  NASA says the money will go towards pursuing its future missions to — where else… Mars!