Did the Onion Go Too Far? Capitol Evacuation Story Prompts Police Response
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ABC News’ Sunlen Miller, Lauren Effron and Andrew Springer report:
The satirical newspaper The Onion may have gone a little too far with their “reporting” this morning, causing the Capitol Hill police to get involved.
The first tweet, with a hashtag of #CongressHostage, sent out at 10:33 a.m. said, “BREAKING: Witnesses reporting screams and gunfire heard inside Capitol building.”
That was followed by a second, more disturbing tweet at 10:44 a.m.: “BREAKING: Capitol building being evacuated. 12 children held hostage by group of armed congressmen. #CongressHostage”
It wasn’t a case of hacking. It was done on purpose.
“It’s just the Onion’s usual satire, you’ll see it unfold,” said Anne Finn, a spokeswoman for The Onion, who also apologized for any confusion.
The magazine also posted a story on its website, explaining in greater detail that during the fake “hostage situation,” House Speaker John Boehner told FBI negotiators that Congress needed $12 trillion.
“House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), who has emerged as spokesman for the bipartisan group, informed FBI negotiators that the legislative body’s demands would be issued within the next hour, and that if any attempt is made to stage a rescue ‘all the kids will die,’” the satirical story said.
Given the sensitivity around the safety of the U.S. Capitol, the reports prompted the Capitol Hill police to issue a statement underlining that there is no credibility to the reports.
“It has come to our attention that recent twitter feeds are reporting false information concerning current conditions at the U.S. Capitol,” Sgt. Kimberly Schneider, a U.S. Capitol Police spokeswoman said in a statement, “Conditions at the U.S. Capitol are currently normal. There is no credibility to these stories or the twitter feeds. The U.S. Capitol Police are currently investigating the reporting.”
The online version of The Onion’s report also included a rather shocking Photoshopped photo of Boehner holding a semiautomatic pistol to the head of a school girl outside the Capitol steps. Another unidentified man in a suit wears a ski mask and holds a rifle.
Though the ”The Onion” is known to often write provocative stories, some readers wondered if the paper took its satire too far this time.
One Twitter user, @bccohan, tweeted: “Again @TheOnion not cool and this image is really really awful. It isn’t funny. Period.”
“I jumped a shark to get to the Onion articles, and I find this tasteless, sick, unfunny article? I hope the hack that wrote this tasteless crap is fired!,” another follower, Jeremy Martin, wrote on The Onion’s Facebook page.
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Seriiously? Why do people think it’s funny to scare others and waste resources?
Posted by: ocmarsha | September 29, 2011, 11:51 am 11:51 am
The next victim of paranoia: our sense of humor. Don’t tell me the terrorists didn’t win….
Posted by: WorkingClass | September 29, 2011, 12:05 pm 12:05 pm
Fine be satirical, bad to push it out over twitter. I like satire and I have liked some Onion articles. The problem occurs when you have people do *ish that they think is funny and it isn’t. For instance, some obnoxious geeks think they are the most withit and funny group of people they know… and therein lies the problem, I think, with the onion. A bunch of geeky humor that has gotten old… except to other obnoxious geeks. ;) Grow up.
Posted by: Onion_Needs_To_Grow_up | September 29, 2011, 12:11 pm 12:11 pm
It’s THE ONION! They don’t write about real news. People Need To Chill!
Posted by: tiffany | September 29, 2011, 12:11 pm 12:11 pm
When you consider what Congress and the rest of the Government has done to the economy – this story isn’t far from true, they just haven’t used a gun, yet!.
Posted by: Same_Old_Same_Old | September 29, 2011, 12:32 pm 12:32 pm
I absolutely love The Onion, and their reporting is for entertainment purposes, only. Not McCarthyism. Sort of like, Bat Boy and Wolfman have kids…*rolls eyes* As much as Congress is screwing people over…some one sticking it to them in satire, is just icing on the cake.
No need to restart the building of your below ground bunkers, just yet.
Posted by: cs | September 29, 2011, 12:44 pm 12:44 pm
haha YOU’RE KIDDING ME…. I’m embarrassed for ABC for even publishing this article. Props to the Onion for STILL fooling people into believing ridiculously untrue stories.
Posted by: Brevan | September 29, 2011, 12:49 pm 12:49 pm
Well done, Onion. Well done.
Posted by: Greg | September 29, 2011, 1:08 pm 1:08 pm
ABC, you just made yourselves look like a bunch of idiots. I can’t believe you all are even taking time out of your day to report on the Onion. For all you people complaining about the Onion, don’t blame the Onion, blame ABC and these other mainstream sources for picking it up and running with this like it’s an actual news story. You all should be ashamed of yourselves, first for being gullible fools, and second for continuing to talk about this like it’s any of your business at all. Move on, mainstream. Move on.
Posted by: Brett | September 29, 2011, 1:10 pm 1:10 pm
You must remember that there are people who never heard of “Onion.” Therefore, the media still needs to be careful how/what is published as real news or comedy. Too many people still remembering 911.
Posted by: Gerri | September 29, 2011, 1:11 pm 1:11 pm
I LOVE it! The Onion always sees the reality behind the facade.
Posted by: Clark Nova | September 29, 2011, 1:16 pm 1:16 pm
You had to known that this was a false story from the start. Congressman takes hostages. That implies that any elected congress person actual does thier own work. Second, IT’S
Posted by: CHRIS | September 29, 2011, 1:18 pm 1:18 pm
ONION_NEEDS_TO_GROW_UP,
I’m sorry, did someone force you to go to their twitter page and follow this fake story? No? Didn’t think so. If you don’t find it funny, don’t read it. Funny that a person telling other people to grow up has a hard time minding their own business. Hypocrite much?
Posted by: Brett | September 29, 2011, 1:20 pm 1:20 pm
I usually appreciate the Onion but this one, showing an image of a gun held to a child’s head, went too far.
Posted by: Maggie | September 29, 2011, 1:25 pm 1:25 pm
In my opinion this is clearly an instance of crying “Fire!” in a crowded theater that was cited by the Supreme Court regarding limitations on freedom of speech.
Posted by: Publius | September 29, 2011, 1:28 pm 1:28 pm
Remember Orsen Wells “War of the Worlds” radio program? It was a hoax and freaked alot of people out at first becasue they thought it was really happening. Chill people, Chill.
Posted by: Cheryl | September 29, 2011, 1:28 pm 1:28 pm
The best thing about The Onion? Suzanne Sena.
Posted by: News at 11 | September 29, 2011, 1:32 pm 1:32 pm
–I usually appreciate the Onion but this one, showing an image of a gun held to a child’s head, went too far.–
Totally. I’m not a Glock fan either. Talk about overused in the media/TV/movies.
Posted by: Hi Power | September 29, 2011, 1:34 pm 1:34 pm
Free country and freedom of speech, so they get to write what they want. Same time, i get to choose what I read and I choose never to read the Onion. They won’t miss me and I won’t miss them.
Posted by: Tex | September 29, 2011, 1:35 pm 1:35 pm
I thought it was a mediocre onion bit until I saw the picture of Boehner. That made me lol. Although I am having trouble deciding if seeing how upset and serious some people became is even funnier than the original joke.
Posted by: savi | September 29, 2011, 1:37 pm 1:37 pm
Seriously? Anybody who reacted to this is obviously too stupid for there own good. The onion is pretty well known for being a COMEDY website.
Posted by: Chuck | September 29, 2011, 1:37 pm 1:37 pm
This may have been a fake story by the onion and it’s pretty pitiful that other news organizations picked it up. That being said, if you compare the reporting on the onion site as opposed to the other mainstream news organizations. You will find the quality of the reporting of the highest quality, and puts the other news organizations to shame
Posted by: bob w | September 29, 2011, 1:40 pm 1:40 pm
I saw the twet, smirked at the humor, and went back to work. Does DCPD not know what the Onion does? It’s one thing for foreign news to think their satirical stories are real, but is there not one person there who questioned what the source of the tip was?
Posted by: Matt | September 29, 2011, 1:48 pm 1:48 pm
How is competent to ABC news have to be to pick up on this story getting your news from twitter and not checking the sources is a pitiful lack of confidence. If anybody’s to blame for the disruption. The story caused it ABC for being total morons
Posted by: bob w | September 29, 2011, 1:52 pm 1:52 pm
Too bad it is on point though the new class of teapublicans are holding our children and health hostage. Art mimics reality.
Posted by: prohibition harms | September 29, 2011, 1:57 pm 1:57 pm
How stupid are you if you actually believed this AND failed to see the humor? Lighten up.
Posted by: Jon W | September 29, 2011, 2:20 pm 2:20 pm
Boy. Now I feel really worried. I always thought the police forces in the US were a little dense, but this seems to indict them even further.
I guess it is a little insensitive of the Onion to make fun of the 300 million americans who suffer from a dysfunctional government through satire, but frankly, we are collectively responsible for this atavistic, self-seeking, un-solidaristic bunch of illiterate, provincial, pandering politicians.
Give me King Georg any day!
Posted by: Al the Cavman | September 29, 2011, 2:23 pm 2:23 pm
If your article can be summarized as “no,” don’t write it.
Posted by: Paul | September 29, 2011, 2:31 pm 2:31 pm
Seriously? Bad to push out a phony story on THE ONION’S Twitter feed? People who are reacting to this seriously are exactly what’s wrong with America.
Posted by: Landru | September 29, 2011, 2:32 pm 2:32 pm
awesome.
Posted by: wraith101 | September 29, 2011, 2:42 pm 2:42 pm
The Onion stopped being even mildly amusing a long time ago. They try too hard and usually are just not funny.
Posted by: daderpdader | September 29, 2011, 2:44 pm 2:44 pm
Call it satirical if you want, but based on the track record of this Congress – holding school children hostage strikes me as plausible.
Posted by: Taintedbylies | September 29, 2011, 2:48 pm 2:48 pm
Who is @bccohan and why am I supposed to care about what he/she/it tweeted?
Posted by: john | September 29, 2011, 3:01 pm 3:01 pm
Way to go ABC NEWS – you just became as idiotic as FOX NEWS.
Posted by: Jeff G. | September 29, 2011, 3:05 pm 3:05 pm
Not the first time our fearless leaders got burned by the onion. I remember a while back some news reporter asked the President his source of information and he stated “The Onion” I was thinking you dumba$$. Keep it up Onion, you are keeping them on their toes.
Posted by: dkgiovenco | September 29, 2011, 3:07 pm 3:07 pm
haha thank you god for all the stupid peaple. Good Job onion, looking forward to more overreactions by the so called main stream media
Posted by: pat | September 29, 2011, 3:18 pm 3:18 pm
If you actually take The Onion seriously, you deserve to be made fun of by the general public. A story like this separates real people from real idiots.
Posted by: Paul Johnson | September 29, 2011, 3:33 pm 3:33 pm
Its comedy. That is what they are supposed to do. Stop worrying about things such as this and address real issues like the attack on federal employees.
Posted by: Jim | September 30, 2011, 9:25 am 9:25 am
The Onion’s been around long enough for people to know it’s not real. Maybe a hillbilly in the middle of nowhere may not know, but the Capitol police certainly should. Besides, this is the information age. It’s not hard to find out the Onion is faux-news. It’s like the idiots that jumped out of the windows during Orson Wells’s War of the Worlds, even thought he program was coming on the same time Mystery Theater always came on. What a bunch of dummies.
Posted by: Peter | September 30, 2011, 9:35 am 9:35 am
So, Capitol Police are too stupid to even know what “satire” means. Good to know.
Posted by: thomas | September 30, 2011, 9:49 am 9:49 am
This is as bad as people posting Facebook requests from friends of friends of cousins of neighbors who overheard a barmaid mention her brother’s girlfriend said it was true. I think I may just have to start reading The Onion now.
Idiots.
Posted by: Nobody Owes You | September 30, 2011, 10:44 am 10:44 am
Does the Capitol police also respond to “news” from Mad Magazine?
Posted by: Alfred E. Neuman | September 30, 2011, 11:02 am 11:02 am
I often wonder why we draw a line at children? I see so many people talking about how horrible this was to write about children or photoshop a pic of Boehner with a gun to a kid’s head. Okay, maybe that is bad, but why is it not acceptable, yet the same things about adults don’t matter? This seems to be a universal condition for humans now… We see violence as acceptable against adults, but we’re so against it when it comes to kids… Humans are humans. Stop drawing some ridiculous line.
Posted by: Jude | September 30, 2011, 11:33 am 11:33 am
It’s S-A-T-I-R-E!
Any clues about what the Onion was satirizing?
Hmmmm?
Posted by: Sen Brownshirt | September 30, 2011, 11:13 pm 11:13 pm
You mean that was satire? Damn, I thought it was real. I was beginning to think that the the Tea Party would stop at nothing to get their way.
Posted by: Arleen | September 30, 2011, 11:26 pm 11:26 pm
You’re giving us just one more example of the state of journalism today……the middle class is sinking like a rock, and THIS is worthy of your time?
YOU are the real joke here.
Posted by: BB | September 30, 2011, 11:35 pm 11:35 pm
Anyone who takes the tweets of The Onion seriously deserves to be fired for gross incompetence.
Apparently The Onion did not go far enough in their mockery of the idiots in Congress.
Posted by: Dave | October 1, 2011, 12:25 am 12:25 am
Really!?! People upset over a story from “The Onion”? First, it’s the onion.. Second, if you twits are tweeting … you have access to the internet… Third, after all the grief Congress and The House of Representatives have put this country through, you choose this to be incensed about? It’s time for a reality and priority check!
Posted by: Amused@humanity | October 1, 2011, 5:03 am 5:03 am
Truth even in a satirical way, always hurts.
Posted by: Mark | October 1, 2011, 11:28 am 11:28 am
PLEASE. This is beyond STUPID. We have allowed ourselves to become a nation that is afraid of its own shadow. If this is how the police react when a well-known satirical publication like the Onion writers such an obviously not-true story, then the terrorists have won… they wanted to destroy our freedoms and way of life and they won. And “news” organizations like ABC are complicit in their victory.
Posted by: CC | October 1, 2011, 11:35 am 11:35 am
It’s true. It just hasn’t happened yet!
Posted by: Dave | October 1, 2011, 1:46 pm 1:46 pm