"Today's Top Story, Is Anything I'm Saying Actually True?"

“Report: Al-Qaeda Allegedly Engaging In Telemarketing”, this is an example of just one of the many satirical articles that can be on Onion News Website. News satire, also called fake news or mock 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 journalism itself, 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 humour, it is occasionally mistaken for real news.
    One of the biggest organization of satirical news , in my opinion, is the Onion News. The popular Peabody Award-winning fake news organization does it best, with well-written articles and even its own astonishingly genuine-looking video broadcasts as the Onion News Network. I once watched a whole segment of the Onion news and I believed every word of it. This was of course before I found out it was not real. That day my dreams were broken.
    "The Onion" features articles satirizing the news in every way imaginable. This paper is presented in a professional manner and has, in the past, been cited by serious news stations mistaking information to be true. This was a problem and began the wave of twisting the news to something it was not intended to be: fake. Some of the not as newsworthy television shows include: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert and “Weekend Update” a segment as part of SNL.

Small Excerpt From SNL's Weekend Update

    But to what extent can these people be considered journalists. Journalists are never supposed to take side in an argument or story. They are demanded to remain unbiased for the sake of the story. However these segments appears to be completely one sided with certain issues. These shows leave the youth population with the wrong idea of what news is and how news was meant to be presented.
    However I love these shows. I watch the Colbert Report relatively every day and I always catch the Weekend Update on YouTube. In class, we learned, “We are not born perceiving. We learn to perceive and not to perceive.” [1] A lot of people have no standpoint on political issues, neither left nor right but fake news analyses a politician’s background as oppose to the anchors viewpoint. These shows demonstrate an excessive amount of creativity and in the long run these people show a deep understanding of what is going on around them. This is what allows them to be so one-sided. They are given the freedom to say what they want and they use this power to their advantage. Satirical news downplays the seriousness of news in the form of entertainment with humour based on irony. This is why shows like the Colbert Report and The Onion News are so important in the world of journalism.
    While these shows in most cases provide great entertainment, I would hope that no one gets their sources from Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert and trust what there saying is true. When looking for serious news stories, coverage of national events, in depth analysis on politician's views, etcetera, a local news program or one of the national news networks is the way to go. Whether the truth is twisted a bit, or if stories are to one sided, satirical news is here to stay. And I kind of like it that. Makes a world a little bit brighter.

Work Cited

[1] "Report: Al-Qaeda Allegedly Engaging In Telemarketing." Onion News 38 (2009): n. pag. Web. 13 Oct 2009. .
[2]Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: Penguin, 2008.