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News satire, also called fake news, is a type of parody presented in a format typical of mainstream journalism, and called a satire because of its content. News satire has been around almost as long as what we consider journalism, but it is particularly popular on the web, where it is relatively easy to mimic a credible news source and stories may achieve wide distribution from nearly any site. Generally, the goal of news satire is to make social commentary in a form that provides entertainment. Because news satire relies heavily on irony and deadpan humor, it is occasionally mistaken for real news. Image File history File links Emblem-important. ... In contemporary usage, a parody (or lampoon) is a work that imitates another work in order to ridicule, ironically comment on, or poke some affectionate fun at the work itself, the subject of the work, the author or fictional voice of the parody, or another subject. ... Journalism is a discipline of gathering, writing and reporting news, and broadly it includes the process of editing and presenting the news articles. ... Ironic redirects here. ... Deadpan is a form of comedic delivery in which something humorous is said or done by a person, while not exhibiting a change in emotion or facial expression. ...

News satire in history

Over a hundred and forty years ago, a young newspaper reporter for the Virginia City (Nevada) Territorial Enterprise newspaper began earning a name for himself as a satirist by publishing occasional spoof articles. The reporter, Samuel Clemens (AKA Mark Twain), was eventually obliged to depart from his post in Nevada, and later from another newspaper in San Francisco, because his "hoaxes" were so successful. Then, as now, many readers failed to perceive the satire. It was because of these early experiences, no doubt, that he came to the conclusion that "a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910),[1] better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American humanist,[2] humorist, satirist, lecturer and writer. ...

Newspapers still print occasional news satire features, in particular on April Fool's Day (April 1). These news are specifically identified somewhere in the paper or in the next day as a joke. Reading the newspaper: Brookgreen Gardens in Pawleys Island, South Carolina. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... is the 91st day of the year (92nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

In 1934, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released a series of ten one-reel theatrical shorts called Goofy Movies, which included "Wotaphony Newsreel," a newsreel parody that paired actual footage with a mocking, deadpan narration. For alternate meanings of MGM, see MGM (disambiguation). ... A newsreel is a documentary film that is regularly released in a public presentation place containing filmed news stories. ... Deadpan is a form of comedic delivery in which humour is presented without exhibiting a change in emotion or facial expression. ...

Also in 1934, halfway through a Kraft Music Hall radio show, Dean Taylor ("Others collect the news, Dean makes it!) narrated a fake newsreel which began with a report on the New York Giants and Philadelphia Phillies being cancelled due to bad weather, and baseball season being rescheduled to when farmers need rain. (34 minutes into clip) Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

Kraft Music Hall 1934-04-19

Kraft Music Hall, April 19, 1934 - 15 MB, 1 hour

Problems listening to the file? See media help.

Television news satire

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News satire has been prevalent on television since the 1960s, when it enjoyed a renaissance in the UK with the Satire Boom, led by such luminaries as Peter Cook, Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller, David Frost, Eleanor Bron and Dudley Moore and the television programme That Was The Week That Was. In the United States, the NBC network adapted this program and also produced its own content, from the "news" segment of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, to the still-running Saturday Night Live mock newscast segment "Weekend Update". Image File history File links Gnome-globe. ... For other persons named Peter Cook, see Peter Cook (disambiguation). ... Published by Faber/Profile Books in 2005 Alan Bennett (born May 9, 1934) is an English author and actor noted for his work, his boyish appearance and his sonorous Yorkshire accent. ... This article is about the British physician, theatre and opera director, and television presenter; for other people named Jonathan Miller, see Jonathan Miller (disambiguation). ... Sir David Paradine Frost, OBE (born April 7, 1939) is an English television presenter. ... Eleanor Bron (born 14 March 1938) is a British stage, film and television actress and author. ... Dudley Stuart John Moore, CBE (April 19, 1935 – March 27, 2002), was an Academy-Award nominated British comedian, actor and musician. ... That Was The Week That Was, also known as TW3, was a satirical television comedy programme that aired on BBC Television in 1962 and 1963. ... This article is about the television network. ... Rowan & Martins Laugh-In was a United States comedy television show broadcast from January 22, 1968 through 1973 over the NBC network. ... SNL redirects here. ... Weekend Update is a Saturday Night Live sketch which comments on and parodies current events. ...

Cable television got into the act with Home Box Office's Not Necessarily the News in the mid 1980s. Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's The Colbert Report are currently very popular in the United States. Ironically, a 2004 Annenberg survey found that Daily Show viewers were better informed than those who relied solely on conventional network news. Some have even compared the trust and influence Stewart enjoys today to that of CBS anchor Walter Cronkite in the 1970s. HBO (Home Box Office) is a premium cable television network with headquarters in New York City. ... Not Necessarily the News was a satirical sketch comedy series that ran on HBO from 1983 to 1990. ... Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart on the set of The Daily Show The Daily Show (currently The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, also known as TDS to fans and staffers) is a half-hour satirical fake news program produced by and run on the Comedy Central cable television network in... This article is about Stephen Colbert, the actor. ... The Colbert Report (IPA ) is an American satirical television program that airs from 11:30 p. ... Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. ...

Comedy Central has also announced that in 2007 they will be launching another spin-off of The Daily Show starring popular Daily Show correspondent and comedian Lewis Black traveling the red states of America called The Red State Diaries. Lewis Niles Black (born August 30, 1948) is a Grammy Award-winning American stand-up comedian, author, playwright, and actor. ... Map of results by state of the 2004 U.S. presidential election, representing states won by the Democrats as blue and those won by the GOP as red. ...

Fox News launched a news satire program in February 2007 with the title of The Half Hour News Hour. Its creator describes it as "The Daily Show for conservatives", but it was cancelled within a few months. Fox News redirects here. ... The Half Hour News Hour is a half-hour television news satire show set to air Sunday evenings on Fox News starting February 18, 2007. ...

In Britain, several news satires have been created, most famously the works of Chris Morris. Show such as the radio series On the Hour and its television version The Day Today parodied news programs very accurately, so they were almost believable and could have been confused with actual news programs, if it was not for the fake stories reported. Morris went on to continue this and several other themes in Brass Eye, one of the most controversial series on British television, especially after one episode broadcast mocked the way the news covered stories about pedophilia. Christopher Morris (born September 5, 1965 in Bristol, England) is an English satirical comedian, writer, director, producer, actor and radio DJ. Morris began his career in radio before moving into television. ... On The Hour double cassette cover featuring Chris Morris, 1992. ... The Day Today is a surreal British parody of television current affairs news programmes. ... Brass Eye is a UK television series of satirical spoof documentaries which aired on Channel 4 in 1997 and was re-run in 2001. ... Not to be confused with Ephebophilia. ...

Currently, British news satire is similar to shows such as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. The Late Edition with Marcus Brigstocke, on digital station BBC Four, is heavily influenced by The Daily Show. News Knight with Sir Trevor McDonald parodied news differently, by using an actual newsreader as the host. Other news satires include Broken News, which featured several sketches of different news channels blending into each other. The Late Edition is a British television program broadcast on BBC 4. ... Marcus Brigstocke (born 8 May 1973) is an English comedian and satirist who has worked extensively in stand-up comedy, television and radio. ... For the BBC radio station, see BBC Radio 4. ... News Knight with Sir Trevor McDonald, better known as News Knight is a British television panel show shown on ITV.[1] It is fronted by Sir Trevor McDonald and is in a similar style to the BBC One programme Have I Got News for You, with three comedians and newsworthy... IBS News, A Broken News Network Broken News is a comedy programme shown on BBC Two in autumn 2005. ...

Currently, Canadian news satire is similar to shows such as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. This Hour Has 22 Minutes is an ensemble fake news show with four anchors on CBC. The Rick Mercer Report is a spin-off of 22 Minutes with former anchor Rick Mercer, and is also shown on CBC. This Hour Has 22 Minutes is a weekly Canadian television comedy that airs on CBC Television. ... CBC Television is a Canadian English language television network. ... Rick Mercer Report (or The Mercer Report; formerly known as Rick Mercers Monday Report or Monday Report) is a Canadian television comedy series which airs on CBC Television and the Comedy Network. ... Richard Vincent Rick Mercer (born October 17, 1969 in St. ...

News satire on the web

People have been posting news satire on the web almost since its inception, but few would contest that The Onion is foremost among recognized news satire sites due to its enduring and profitable business model. The website, which started in 1996, has become virtually synonymous with online satire; its content is syndicated through mainstream media sites such as CNN and CNET. Today there are literally hundreds of news satire sites online. Sometimes people publish news satire articles in blogs. Sites such as The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs and the parody blog network News Groper contain fake blogs written by humorists in first person, taking on the identity of notable famous people. Other satire sites attempt to emulate a genuine news source of some sort (however, these sites now take a variety of forms). The Onion is a United States-based parody newspaper published weekly in print and daily online. ... The Cable News Network, commonly known as CNN, is a major cable television network founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. ... CNET Networks, Inc. ... It has been suggested that Online diary be merged into this article or section. ... Daniel Lyons (born 1960, Massachusetts) is an American writer. ... A fake blog (sometimes shortened to flog or referred to as a flack blog) is a marketing tool designed by a professional advertisement company to promote a product in a fashion one might find on a fan site or in regular blog entries. ... First-person narrative is a literary technique in which the story is narrated by one character, who explicitly refers to him or herself in the first person, that is, I. the narrator is a fool putting his nose into the storytelling exercise. ...

Because interesting stories are often emailed and can quickly become separated from their point of origin, it is not uncommon for news satire stories to be picked up as real by the media. Wikpedia contains a list of articles published by The Onion that have been taken seriously by a variety of new outlets. Additionally, a parody post on Al Sharpton's parody News Groper blog was quoted as if real by MSNBC. And, most recently, a new satire publication, The Giant Napkin, published an article about a man literally fighting his house fire with more fire, a story taken seriously by several social networking sites. The fact that Google News accepts news satire sources helps contribute to this phenomenon; while Google News does mark such stories with a "satire" tag, not all readers notice the tag; moreover sometimes satirical sources may not carry the tag. At least one site, thespoof.com, relies on user-generated content in a Web 2.0 manner. The Onion is a United States-based parody newspaper published weekly in print and daily online. ... Google News is an automated news aggregator provided by Google Inc. ... On September 30, 2005, Tim OReilly wrote a piece summarizing his view of Web 2. ...

Several sites aggregate headlines from satire news sites, such as About.com. However, there is a community of selected news satire sites which runs its own satire news feed on HumorFeed. HumorFeed is notable for its relatively high standards of admission and active community involvement. At present, over 60 sites are contributing members, at least 8 of which have published books and 2 of which publish regular hard-copy periodicals. Several HumorFeed members also run Check Please!, an online journal devoted to the serious examination of online satire, ranging from its role in relation to actual journalism to practical considerations of producing an online satire site. Screenshot of About. ... HumorFeed is a website founded in 2003 by a group of around 20 news satire webmasters. ...

References

1. ^ An interview with The Onion, David Shankbone, Wikinews, November 25, 2007.

The references in this article would be clearer with a different or consistent style of citation, footnoting, or external linking.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2007)

• U.S. satire tricks Beijing paper, a June 2002 San Francisco Chronicle article
• You've been Onioned!
• Blog satire mistaken as news by agencies in Syria, Pakistan
• The Onion: Funny site is no joke, a Business 2.0 profile

Wikinews is a free-content news source and a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. ... Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... Todays San Francisco Chronicle was founded in 1865 as The Daily Dramatic Chronicle by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. ... cover Business 2. ...

See also

• List of satirical television news programs
• The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
• The Colbert Report
• The Onion
• The Daily Mash
• HumorFeed (Aggregator)
• Satirical Muslim
• The Chaser
• AltTime
• SatireWire
• Toronto Special
• Broken Newz
• Lush For Life
• Satire newsroom at About.com
• Uncyclopedia's parody of Wikinews
• Yossarian Universal News Service
• The Second Supper
• The Butter Stick
• ScrapeTV