The Satire Site That Dupes More Professionals Than The Onion
The Daily Currant — a satire site that does well to mask the fact that it is satire — has struck again Friday morning, duping The Drudge Report and Zero Hedge (and thousands of readers in the process.
The latest "story" is a juicy bit: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is denied a second slice of pizza because he had reached his "pizza limit." It's an item that pokes fun at the mayor's ban on sodas of 15 ounces or more.
This was how Drudge played it:
"For us, being featured on The Drudge Report today is yet another sign of our success in bringing intelligent, character-driven comedy to the Internet," Daily Currant founder and managing editor Daniel Barkeley told Business Insider in an email.
Zero Hedge also picked up on it, before subsequently adding references to the Onion and satire:
This is far from the first time that the Daily Currant has fooled legitimate news organizations. Remember back in March, when a rumor about Paul Krugman filing for bankruptcy made its way to Breitbart.com and Boston.com (where a contributor published it)?
And back in February, the Washington Post reported that Sarah Palin was joining Al Jazeera based on a fake story from the Daily Currant. Palin promptly ranted on the reporter, Suzi Parker, and the Washington Post in general.
And the site struck multiple times during the 2012 campaign:
- It published a satirical item purporting that Republican candidate Rick Santorum had accidentally joined Grindr, a gay dating website. It subsequently blew up across many sites.
- An item about President George W. Bush accidentally voting for President Barack Obama in November also blew up.
- After Senate candidate Todd Akin's infamous "legitimate rape" remarks, a story by the Currant went viral purporting that Akin believed "breast milk cures homosexuality."
So here's a PSA: The Daily Currant is a not-very-funny satire site, in case you ever were in danger of being fooled by it.