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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"Rest in peace, The Onion. You will be missed."
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/05/27/1211908/-The-Onion-Calls-it-Quits
Sun May 26, 2013 at 09:10 PM PDT
The Onion Calls it Quits
by The Troubadour
For nearly 25 years, The Onion has been satirizing American politics and society with unparalleled brilliance. However, the fake news publication or "America's Finest News Source" has sadly and stunningly announced that it will cease operations in 2014.
In a press release, The Onion's Editor-In-Chief, Will Tracy, explained what led to the publication's difficult decision:
The Onion has always been recognized as a first-rate satirical publication, making fun of all that is absurd in our socio-political world. However, in today's contemporary political environment, our brand has simply gotten muddled. And I can say with clarity that today's GOP is fully to blame.
It used to be that political satire was easy. All one had to do was find the absurd buried beneath the surface of a given story and employ satire to highlight that absurdity. To shine a light on it.
Now? Now you have headlines showing up in mainstream publications like "Kansas Republican Actually Opposes the Poor Buying More Food" and "Conservatives Less Likely to Buy Energy Efficient Bulbs if Labeled as Environmentally Friendly."
The absurdity of conservatives in this country has completely destroyed our business. Republicans have ruined us. Period.
New readers to The Onion can't tell anymore that we are a satirical publication. And established readers have been leaving our pages, finding greater absurdity at places like CNN and USA Today.
snip//
The Onion will continue operations through the upcoming presidential election, with its last issue set to be published on November 6, 2014. When asked why, Shebesta answered, "What better day for a satirical news outlet to close up shop?"
Indeed.
Rest in peace, The Onion. You will be missed.
Brickbat
(19,339 posts)ctsnowman
(1,903 posts)Thank you.
sakabatou
(42,134 posts)Edit: nvm
Tx4obama
(36,974 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)babylonsister
(171,029 posts)tblue
(16,350 posts)Tx4obama
(36,974 posts)I wonder how many Republicans and TeaPartiers will fall for that!
Gidney N Cloyd
(19,817 posts)BadgerKid
(4,549 posts)Pure gold
erpowers
(9,350 posts)In recent months I could not always tell the difference between an Onion headline and a regular news headline. There were a number of times that I saw posts at DU that listed the title of an article and I checked the link to see if it was an article in the Onion.
some of the headlines about what conservatives are doing, legislatively and otherwise, are beyond the absurd.
My husband was reading something to me recently and I kept saying it's The Onion, it's not real! I had to see the article for myself! lol
sad
hopemountain
(3,919 posts)ctsnowman
(1,903 posts)sheshe2
(83,637 posts)But then we were like, Wait, we're just comedy writers, not journalists. We're overqualified!
uriel1972
(4,261 posts)Too close to the bone.
Cleita
(75,480 posts)lpbk2713
(42,736 posts)Sad but true.
The Onion really filled a void and they will be missed.
nolabear
(41,930 posts)Did the GOP pull off something I didn't hear about?
tblue
(16,350 posts)I didn't catch it at first.
scarletwoman
(31,893 posts)Enrique
(27,461 posts)BlueStreak
(8,377 posts)ctsnowman
(1,903 posts)maddiemom
(5,106 posts)LongTomH
(8,636 posts)The Onion has always been closer to reality than the "mainstream" news sources. I remember their prophetic headline from 2001: "Our national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally coming to a close."
StevieM
(10,500 posts)I was out-of-town visiting with my whole family. I saw my father, brother, sister, nephews, nieces, aunts, uncles and cousins. It was a big family weekend. On Monday, Memorial Day, we all got together at my aunt's house. And as usual, we talked some politics.
At one point, the subject of the Virginia elections came up. They were talking about how ridiculous Ken Cuccinelli and the Lt. Gubernatorial are. I then mentioned the lunatic running for attorney general. I told them about his proposal that women who have miscarriages be required to report them or face charges. They were astounded. I said that it was reminiscent of something you would read in the Onion, except it is happening in real life. Everyone laughed at the idiocy of the GOP and the time in which we live.
I swear....I had not yet read this article, or even heard about it.
xoom
(322 posts)Tx4obama
(36,974 posts)BlueStreak
(8,377 posts)None of the networks seem to be doing that, so they would have the field to themselves.
Blue State Bandit
(2,122 posts)savalez
(3,517 posts)Or Satire looking in a mirror doing satire with a mirror behind it. Er, something like that.
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)hopemountain
(3,919 posts)a more pungent "the garlic".
KoKo
(84,711 posts)much longer. It's just too hurtful to our President and the Establishment to have issues ridiculed.
So...there will be an end to "satire, cartoons and investigative journalism" or they will be marginalized. That stuff just causes one to get investigated by the DOJ or FBI/CIA and who wants to end up prosecuted for poking fun or digging into the "weeds."
Better to just Smile and Glad Hand and be "Part of the Crowd." No one wants to end up badly when the "full Power and Investigative Resources of the American Government" puts one on the "suspect list."
So...while it's "satire on Onion Satire"...it's probably the way things will be going in the future. This is not a time to "poke fun, or ask questions" when things are Soooo...Serious.
FSogol
(45,435 posts)uppityperson
(115,677 posts)Rosa Luxemburg
(28,627 posts)How much money do we need?
Ikonoklast
(23,973 posts)They just Mega-Meta'd the entire world.
cynatnite
(31,011 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)Onion was the only outlet that published the unvarnished facts, by pretending it was all in fun.
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)Very meta
Kurovski
(34,655 posts)But I'm on the first floor.
I still owe you a phone call, sugar pumpkin!
babylonsister
(171,029 posts)Hope you are well!
felix_numinous
(5,198 posts)Jamaal510
(10,893 posts)just because of the fact that conservatives have made it increasingly difficult to distinguish between satire and real news. For instance, there was the satirical piece where Ann Coulter refused to share a seat on a plane with a Black person. I actually believed it at first because judging by some of the things she has said in the past related to racial topics, Ann doing something like that in real-life wouldn't sound very farfetched to me at all.
I'll bet that these satirists have gotten quite a few people in trouble over their work; not everyone is savvy about political satire.
mrdmk
(2,943 posts)There is a major clue here folks!!!
AnneD
(15,774 posts)the Onion was satire, and we didn't get our nightly news from a comedy show.
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)(as are about half the posters on this thread.)