Prank NY Times: `All the news we hope to print'
NEW YORK - Commuters nationwide found out during
Wednesday's morning rush hour that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
had ended and global warming, health care spending and the
economy's problems were on their way to being solved.
On behalf of a collective of liberal activists, 1,000 volunteers
across the country handed out 1.2 million copies of a spoof of The
New York Times, dated July 4, 2009.
At first glance, the parody, which used the Times' Gothic-style
font on the nameplate, could easily be mistaken for the real thing.
The 14-page paper _ which also announced the abolition of
corporate lobbying, a maximum wage for chief executives and a
recall for all gasoline-fueled cars _ showed up in New York, Los
Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
The pranksters _ including a film promoter, a college teacher,
journalists and others _ said they wanted to encourage the
administration of Democratic President-elect Barack Obama to keep
its promises.
The publication was funded by small, online contributions "to
maintain the pressure on the people we've elected so they do what
we've elected them to do," said a journalist using the pseudonym
Wilfred Sassoon for the project because he wanted to protect his
real job at a newspaper in the New York area.
He said he helped create the paper with about 30 other people,
many of whom work at New York daily newspapers.
Steven Lambert, an editor of the parody who teaches art at
Hunter College and Parsons The New School for Design _ and gave his
real name _ said the project was a success.
"This really resonated with people on the street," Lambert
said. "First, there was a moment of, 'How could this be true?' But
then people enjoyed this feeling of, 'Ah, amazing things really
could happen!' The paper provides this vision of what's possible if
we all work together."
Lambert said the team included three New York Times staffers
whose names will remain secret. He said the group looked into the
legal issues raised by the use of The New York Times nameplate
style and believes it is within the bounds of what's known as
"fair use" under federal copyright law.
On the Times' Web site, spokeswoman Catherine Mathis said:
"This is obviously a fake issue of The Times. We are in the
process of finding out more about it."
Sassoon said the project started about six months ago, when "a
little group of journalists were sitting around having a beer."
The group posted a small notice on Craigslist soliciting
volunteer writers and others to help. The fake paper was printed at
presses around the country and The Yes Men, a New York-based
prankster group, provided software and Internet support.
The group said it spent less than $100,000 on the effort.
The lead story appears beneath the headlines "Iraq War Ends"
and "Troops to Return Immediately." Another story declares,
"Nation Sets Its Sights on Building Sane Economy."
The writers' political perspective is clear, from their twist on
the Times' own motto "All the news that's fit to print" _ "All
the news we hope to print" _ to a story that has former Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice admitting the Bush administration knew
well before the 2003 Iraq invasion that Saddam Hussein did not have
weapons of mass destruction.
There are even fake ads, including one for a South African
diamond company promising that a purchase of a diamond "will help
fund the creation, fitting and maintenance of a prosthetic for an
African whose hand was lost in one of the continent's brutal
conflicts over diamonds."
It's not the first time the venerable newspaper has been
parodied.
One spoof came out during the 1978 newspaper strike and another
on April Fools' Day in 1999. The second was printed by British
business tycoon Sir Richard Branson and titled "I Can't Believe
It's Not The New York Times."
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