COMMENTARY | The Onion, a satirical newspaper, has caused some real world news with one of its fake news stories. After some tweets about a “hostage situation” at the nation’s capitol, the webzine published a story about armed congressman taking children hostage.
The headline screams “Congress Takes Group of Schoolchildren Hostage.”
The story was accompanied by a lurid and doctored picture of House Speaker John Boehner holding a pistol to the head of a small child. There were details of children being tied up to the various sculptures in the Capitol Rotunda. A list of further demands included guaranteed reelection, the lowering of the veto threshold in the Senate from two-thirds to one-half, new desks, and safe passage to Reagan National Airport to a fueled up airplane. There was also some verbiage about President Obama futilely attempting to negotiate a peaceful resolution.
The subtext of the satire is rather obvious to anyone who has followed political events for the past few months. The story touched on the theme of politicians holding our children’s future hostage with an inability to deal with the national debt, the inability of President Obama and Congress to come to any agreement, and the willingness of some in Congress to hold the nation up for ransom, even to the tune of $12 trillion.
Unfortunately some people with a humor impairment reported this story to the Capitol Police. The police had to respond that everything was normal, though an investigation would take place.
Translated, that means while there may be felonies taking place at the nation’s Capitol, they do not involve firearms and screaming children.
The kerfuffle involving the “hostage crisis” is similar to what happened in the 1930s when Orson Welles’ Mercury Radio Theater broadcast a dramatization of “War of the Worlds” in the form of a series of fake news broadcasts. People who had not heard the disclaimer assumed that the alien invasion was real and went into a panic. Welles, somewhat rueful about what his radio drama had caused, had to apologize for causing the fuss. However, he did win enough fame to eventually go to Hollywood and make “Citizen Kane.” But that is another story.
Source: Satirical Onion article prompts Capitol concern, C.J. Ciaramella, The Daily Caller, Sept 29, 2011
Congress Takes Group Of Schoolchildren Hostage ‘We Need $12 Trillion Or All These Kids Die’, The Onion, Sept 29, 2011
War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast