They were inadvertently punked by Madison labor cartoonist Mike Konopacki. The fake story was about Paul Ryan threatening the Smithsonian for putting up a display of Wisconsin protest signs from last year. The story was an elaboration of the true story of Assembly Rep Nash attacking UW for a similar display.
The story was based on a news release that purportedly came from Nass’ office, but was in fact fabricated by Madison labor cartoonist Mike Konopacki. He has drawn editorial cartoons for The Capital Times for many years on a freelance basis and he sent the fake release to a staff member who then forwarded it to Associate Editor John Nichols, who wrote the story.
The release seemed plausible because on Wednesday, The Capital Times reported that the University of Wisconsin-Extension’s School for Workers abruptly called off an event called “Art in Protest” connected to the Capitol protests after a Nass aide told its organizers that it would be in poor taste. The organizers said publicly that they called off “Art in Protest” for a “variety of reasons” and that “now is not the best time” for it, but the story paraphrased two informed sources anonymously saying that Nass’ office threatened the school’s funding.
The first rule of journalism? Always check your sources! I myself got punked on this…
That’s okay really. It really is good to be able to laugh at yourself, to say omg I’m an idiot once in a while (or in my own case – to say it a lot, it’s very freeing) but please consider the significance of the fact that
NO ONE could have gotten ‘punked” if this “press release” were not so very very similar to thinks that have really happened and are continuing to happen. I saw the story immediately after a post on Glenn Grothman’s pasty anger over the “Attack on WI Men”. These people are INSANE. To expect them to act insane is well, sane.
I go thru my day resisting the urge to scratch my own eyes out, I can’t believe the stuff I see and hear anymore. Yet – it’s all real. This incident and the Walker prank call both reveal a few things. Walker was not at all surprised to get a conspiratorial gossipy mean-spirited good-old-boy call from an extremist millionaire. None of us are surprised that after all the attacks on Public Television, Public schools, public workers, social safety nets, basic tenets of free speech, womens’ rights, contraception, accepted fundamentals of evolution, the science behind climate change, open interactions on the Internet, suspension of habeus corpus, the nullification of Benton harbor government bodies, rampant law-breaking by law-makers and on and on, and most especially after all the attempts at historical re-writes by the radical right – we are supposed to think an attack on another public institution and threats to hold it hostage via financial manipulation (Congress anyone??) is just SO UNTHINKABLE??
Hell, this is our everyday life.
We are not the ones who should be embarrassed. Too many of our leaders are all-out walking jokes in everything they say and do. You can’t watch the antics of Beck or Santorum or any of these insane clowns and then attempt to draw lines of normalcy, or to be able to set a point at which Ridiculous becomes Too Ridiculous and is obviously a joke.
Y’all should take my word on this since I personally type out rather a lot of fuckery throughout the course of my day. Oh yeah – here’s another one – That shitty mining bill authorizes the company to dumps steaming piles of arsenic and whatever other kind of shit they want in “rivers, lakes, streams and wetlands”,not just water near the mine, but anywhere through out the state. AND they don’t have to even tell you what’s in the glowing green drums of ooze they’re dumping in your lake. You can’t sue them or once again, ask what they’re putting in your kid’s water even after you have babies with tentacles growing out of their foreheads.
And – people near sandmines in NW WI are already having snow that is gray from the first moment it falls.
Unbelievable? a joke? bitter parody? or just daily life in America today
Yup.
I was impressed with the speed that corrections were issued by both primary and secondary blog sources, whereas conservative outlets are more inclined to the delete-and-we-shall-never-speak-of-this-again approach.
I do have a small gripe with the “how” however. Stories were pulled, and corrections issued, yes, but in the age of the internet, it’s impossible to know whether and by whom the story has been accessed and cached. In my opinion, the original URL and content should be maintained (perhaps with strike-through indicated), with prominent disclosure of error (strong, emphasis, and vote-against coded).
Good suggestion. I’ve updated and re-posted my original punking.
Come now, Jimspice. I can point to many press releases from Wisconsin Reporter, Media Trackers, etc. that contain information that was either outright fabricated or was easily proven inaccurate, and no retractions were issued, and their stories remain on the web.
Or by “outlet” do you mean “blogger”? Yeah, Fred RDW has done that a few times, hasn’t he? The other trick is to simply emit a fresh new batch of posts to push the embarassing one off the front page.
I still think it’s a good idea. Rather than create an un-story (akin to an un-person), just update with strikethrough. I’ve now done that.
For a short time, John Nichols found out what it is like to be Christian Schneider.