The Onion’s tweets about Capitol gunfire prompt panic, mockery

[Jenna]

The Onion, a satirical news Web site and newspaper known for its ability to elicit peals of laughter, isn’t getting too many guffaws on this one. The site tweeted Thursday:


The site also posted the news to its Facebook page.

In Washington, people didn’t find the tweet so funny. One person wrote, “I work at the Capitol and I just yelled at my coworkers that there was gunfire... you scared the [expletive] out of me #fakenewsscares.”

The Onion’s tweets were connected to a story posted on their Web site Thursday, in which Congress takes a group of schoolchildren hostage and demands $12 trillion in cash, satirizing the recent budget debacles in Washington.

The Washington Post’s Federal Eye blogger Ed O’Keefe reports that Capitol Police have reacted “angrily” to the parody.

In a statement released to reporters, police said, “Conditions at the U.S. Capitol are currently normal... There is no credibility to these stories or the twitter feeds.”

More here: The Onion’s tweets about Capitol gunfire prompt panic, mockery - BlogPost - The Washington Post

[Xiphos]

How much of a stupid oxygen thief do you have to be to take The Onion seriously? Really? EVERYTHING they've ever done was a joke. But this morning on Twitter they're reporting ACTUAL events? It shouldn't surprise me that an employee of the government, working with congress, was quoted in the news as falling for it. Is it a prerequisite to be stupid enough to take The Onion seriously to be employed with the federal government?

If The Onion has any satirical credibility they will begin tweeting about an alien invasion of Earth tonight and see how many people lock themselves in Panic Rooms and bunkers.

[Xiphos]

A few people got it. Not surprised Time is serious. Idiots.

[copboy]

I think that there are two issues here

First is yes people are stupid. People will only see what they want to see or what they think they see. If they are reading a tweet from the Onion you would thing they would know that it was fake, however they see just the words and don't register the sender.

Second is the fact that the Onion would post something like this. Though I find most of there stuff funny ( even the paper airplane in to the Pentagon) sometimes I don't think they consider peoples reactions. Residents and workers in DC as well as NY who experienced first hand the events of 9/11 are very on edge about this kind of thing. Remember when AF1 was flying low over NY the panic that was caused? Freedom of speech is a sacred right in this country and that applies to the Onion just as much as any of us. I just think that some common scene should be used and some thought should be used as to what peoples reaction might be when reading a tweet like this.

[Five-0]

I love The Onion and hate stupid people so mmmph. My only question is was the shooter using defective SteelHawk bullets? See link below for details:

http://apbweb.com/forums/news-5/bullet-recall-46310/