I'm falling down on the job. I've done nothing on last week's Times parody, nothing about the brilliant "Tom Friedman" column in which he resigns for getting things wrong ("I have made a decision: as of today, I will no longer write in this or any other newspaper."). James North tells me that the Times parody drew blood. When the Times
covered this fake edition of 1 million copies (a figure I doubt), it did so in an offhand fashion, and promptly brought up a
1970s era parody of the Times so as to change the focus, as if to say, Well that one was better.
It's interesting because there's another newspaper parody controversy in Canada. David Frum's former employer, CanWest, owns the Vancouver Sun and is pursuing a lawsuit against two people who issued a parody edition. That one was all about Israel. Some funny bits in the parody edition:
Seriously Zionist Since 2001
Study Shows Truth Biased Against Israel
It seems to me that both parodies are significant because unlike the lampoons of the 70s, these are serious: the parodists are trying to expose the mainstream media for their failures on significant political issues. Canadian lefty Mordecai Briemberg, who was implicated in the Vancouver Sun parody but says he wasn't involved: "Canadians are not getting accurate information about what's happening in the Middle East."
Thanks to Rupa Shah
