The level of journalism in this part of the world can be spotty verging on wretched verging on pathetic. Especially among the bottom feeders of the English-language media.

Some are known to thieve stories from rivals without attribution. I could name names, but they know who they are. And so do we, at The National.

A couple of the thieves were exposed, embarrassingly, when they picked up a fake story and ran it as real news.

In earlier posts, I have mentioned the Pan-Arabia Enquirer. It is an often brilliant satire site that finds the amusing sides of possible stories from the region.

One of these stories came under this headline: “Dubai man reserves iPhone 5 for $200,000”.

And the story begins with: “The official announcement may be two days away, but that hasn’t stopped one man in Dubai already reserving the region’s first Apple iPhone 5.

“Fadi Flat-White, a noted imbecile, is said to have handed over $200,000 – around 200 times the iPhone 5’s estimated price on release – to ensure he is the first in the Middle East to receive the smartphone when it eventually hits shelves later this month.”

Now, isn’t that pretty clearly satire? Only the angriest of authors would suggest that the subject of a story is “a noted imbecile”.

The rest of it, however, is plausible. Lots of wealthy guys running around the UAE with more money than sense. The idea of being the first is always alluring. And it could have happened.

Except it didn’t.

Meanwhile, at least four English-language newspapers in the region picked up the story and ran it. Which is lame, but satire sometimes is beyond the grasp of some regional editors working at English-language newspapers.

At least three of the publications are located in the UAE.

We at The National had a good laugh about this — the satire and, especially, our thieving quasi-competitors.

We should note:

1. Look at the comments at the bottom of the linked story, and you will see that more than a few readers of the site have no idea it is meant to be comedy.

2. The newspapers who ran with this story later removed them from their websites. But not before leaving behind the electronic trail of their latest journalistic crimes.