the Onion vs Bush

[nokhor]

round 1: the presidential seal

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/24/business/24onion.html?ex=1287806400&en=b40eb239c3b34014&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

[Papewaio]

Isn't irony and political caricuture protected?

[Kanamori]

~:joker:

How many people that recognize the seal wouldn't realize it is parody?

If the gov. wins, you can expect the onion to change one very little thing in the icon and make it absolutely hilarious. Regardless, if this becomes big news in the US it will give the white house a bad image to the public.

[Crazed Rabbit]

It's not caricature or parody. They are using the actual, unchanged, seal. That said, the White House could probably find better things to do with its time.

Crazed Rabbit

[Kanamori]

I hereby ask for Congress to declare war on Texas...

http://alt.samhsa.gov/SAMHSA_News/VolumeXIII_2/images/image6.jpg








I am not using the seal to sell something and The Onion isn't either.

[yesdachi]

I am not using the seal to sell something and The Onion isn't either.
The Onion does sell advertising space.:bow:

[Geoffrey S]

http://212.84.179.117/i/Grey%20Seal.jpg

[Xiahou]

The Onion does sell advertising space.:bow:
Exactly- they are using it to make money and it's disingenuous for them to claim otherwise, as the Onion is a for-profit company.

The real question is whether or not their usage for parody is protected speech. I tend to think that if it goes to court, it'd be found that it is protected. However, I doubt the Onion wants to make a federal case out of it- they'll probably cave and stop using the seal or change it as part of a settlement if the whitehouse pushes it.

[Reverend Joe]

http://212.84.179.117/i/Grey%20Seal.jpg

:laugh4:

That's going in the second Sad-eyed puppy thread!

[yesdachi]

http://212.84.179.117/i/Grey%20Seal.jpg
Want to hear a joke?~:)

A seal walked into a club.


Ba dum bum ting ~D

[Red Harvest]

Considering it is clearly satire, I doubt the Oval Office has particularly strong legal ground. I do think it is in poor taste to use an un-altered seal. It would be funnier if they changed the seal slightly: make a "Dubyism" out of it or something like that. Maybe just alter it to something like "President of 51% of the United States," etc. EDIT: Or better yet, have 51% crossed out, and 40% scribbled in...

[Spetulhu]

Why not alter the seal to have the eagle look the other way? That would be satire, as they're playing on the "War President" and this urban legend:http://www.snopes.com/history/american/turnhead.htm

[Papewaio]

The seal itself does not needed to be altered to be part of a parody. The Onion articles are a parody with bits and pieces of fact thrown in, things like an unaltered seal heighten the parody invoked in the article.

If the parody was about the seal itself then it would be the item that would be altered.

[solypsist]

$10 says the government doesn't have the cojones to try and test parody laws with this case. we'll never hear about this again. it's a non-issue.

[Kommodus]

This is of course a minor issue, and more comical than anything else, but I want to point out one thing:



More formally, The Onion's lawyers responded that the paper's readers - it prints about 500,000 copies weekly, and three million people read it online - are well aware that The Onion is a joke.

"It is inconceivable that anyone would think that, by using the seal, The Onion intends to 'convey... sponsorship or approval' by the president," wrote Rochelle H. Klaskin, the paper's lawyer...


Actually, it wasn't long ago that someone posted, on this very message board, a reference to an Onion article titled "Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With 'Intelligent Falling' Theory." The poster believed the article to be authentic, and so did several people who responded to the post. The satire was utterly lost on them.

Never underestimate the magnitude of human ability to take things out of context. Just as a familiar example, consider how many tongue-in-cheek statements made by politicians have come through in the press as absolutely reprehensible. Many reporters seem to love nothing better than to report selectively, so that their readers get a picture distorted beyond recognition.

As hard as it may be to believe, there are people out there who think that the Onion is serious. :rolleyes:

[monkian]

This is of course a minor issue, and more comical than anything else, but I want to point out one thing:



Actually, it wasn't long ago that someone posted, on this very message board, a reference to an Onion article titled "Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With 'Intelligent Falling' Theory." The poster believed the article to be authentic, and so did several people who responded to the post. The satire was utterly lost on them.

Never underestimate the magnitude of human ability to take things out of context. Just as a familiar example, consider how many tongue-in-cheek statements made by politicians have come through in the press as absolutely reprehensible. Many reporters seem to love nothing better than to report selectively, so that their readers get a picture distorted beyond recognition.

As hard as it may be to believe, there are people out there who think that the Onion is serious. :rolleyes:

Or never underestimate human stupidity ~;p

[Franconicus]

:thrasher: :thrasher:

I told you 'bout Strawberry fields,
You know the place where nothing is real.
Well here's another place you can go,
Where everything flows.

Looking through the bent backed tulips
To see how the other half lives
Looking through a glass onion
http://www.mxtabs.net/tab_versions.php?path=Guitar,b,122,Beatles,Glass+Onion,51510

I really like this absurd White House humor!~D

[nokhor]

the Onion vs Bush

round II

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/42136

[Kanamori]

I like it better when they stay away from total vulgarity.~:rolleyes:

[Redleg]

the Onion vs Bush

round II

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/42136


Based on that particlur not so suttle slam - I would say the Onion at best drew a draw on this round.

Damn I normally like their stuff - nice and suttle build up and often very good parody - but that one is down there with Mad Magizine - funny but tasteless.