Newspaper Parodies Grow Ever Less Amusing
National Lampoon parodied a newspaper back in the 70s, and The Onion was founded in 1988, and last year there was that mildly interesting fake New York Times, but the latest spoof paper is indistinguishable from an earnest lefty, arguing.
Greenpeace gave out 50,000 of these fake IHTs in Europe, featuring risible headline shockers like:
Exxon finally comes clean
Markets soar on news of Copenhagen climate deal
India turns its back on the carbon economy
Oh what a world that would be! There should be some law that these things are legal only if they're funny. Pasting your annual fundraiser letter into a newspaper format is not that awesome any more. The IHT, though, obliged by complaining that "to have our name and image paraded among this community as a politically motivated publicity stunt is wholly contrary to our values of independence and accuracy." It's like watching an old man argue with an older man.