Type of site | Satirical news |
---|---|
Created by | Scott Ott |
URL | www |
Launched | July 2002 |
Current status | Online |
ScrappleFace is a U.S. website run by Scott Ott that satirizes the news from a conservative perspective.
The name ScrappleFace was coined by Ott's grandmother, Jessica McMaster (1915–2006), who cared for Ott and his brothers from the age of five, for their dog. [1] [2] Ott chose the name knowing that the domain name would be available because no one else would know the word.
Ott, a former journalist, started Scrappleface in July 2002. Ott oversees "the vast editorial staff" at ScrappleFace, an unnamed group of non-existent journalists who "cover the globe like a patina of dental plaque" according to earlier items on the site. [3] In reality, all the ScrappleFace stories (more than 2,500 as of 15 March 2007) on politics, the war on terror, business, science, theology and even sports were written by Ott. The website reported over 10,000,000 visitors as of May 2007.
ScrappleFace is probably best known for originating the phrase "Axis of weasels" (parody of "Axis of evil"), [4] [5] in an item Ott wrote in January 2003 titled "Rumsfeld Sorry for Axis of Weasels Remark". Glenn Reynolds linked to it at his widely read blog, Instapundit, [6] noting that it was being circulated at the White House and Pentagon. Two days later, the New York Post carried the front-page headline "AXIS OF WEASEL - GERMANY AND FRANCE WIMP OUT ON IRAQ; COLIN RAPS FRENCH, GERMAN WIMPS". [7] Ott later published a collection of ScrappleFace stories under the title "Axis of Weasels" ( ISBN 097614140X; now out of print).
Ott's work has been quoted in The Washington Post , Sports Illustrated , The Kansas City Star , The Weekly Standard , Wired , OpinionJournal.com [ citation needed ]and the BBC website. [8] ScrappleFace stories have also been quoted on radio by Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Roger Hedgecock, Michael Medved, Bill Bennett, and dozens of regional radio hosts as well as on CNN and MSNBC. At least two ScrappleFace stories have been passed around via email enough to become an urban myth and be debunked by Snopes.com. [9] [10] ScrappleFace is popular amongst conservative political bloggers, who frequently link to its items.
Scott Ott began producing a video faux newscast on January 14, 2009 with the launch of SNN (ScrappleFace Network News). The first story was about the tax filing troubles of President Barack Obama's Treasury Secretary nominee Timothy Geithner.
Donald Henry Rumsfeld was an American politician, government official and businessman who served as secretary of defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and again from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He was both the youngest and the oldest secretary of defense. Additionally, Rumsfeld was a four-term U.S. Congressman from Illinois (1963–1969), director of the Office of Economic Opportunity (1969–1970), counselor to the president (1969–1973), the U.S. Representative to NATO (1973–1974), and the White House Chief of Staff (1974–1975). Between his terms as secretary of defense, he served as the CEO and chairman of several companies.
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The phrase "axis of evil" was first used by U.S. President George W. Bush and originally referred to Iran, Ba'athist Iraq, and North Korea. It was used in Bush's State of the Union address on January 29, 2002, less than five months after the September 11 attacks and almost a year before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and often repeated throughout his presidency. He used it to describe foreign governments that, during his administration, allegedly sponsored terrorism and sought weapons of mass destruction.
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Old Europe and New Europe are terms used to contrast parts of Europe with each other in a rhetorical way. In the 21st century, the terms have been used by conservative political analysts in the United States to describe post-Communist era countries in Central and Eastern Europe as 'newer' and parts of Western Europe as 'older', suggesting that the latter were less important. The term Old Europe attracted attention when it was used by then-U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in January 2003 to refer to democratic European countries before the fall of Communism in Europe, after which a significant number of new members have eventually joined NATO, the European Union and other European bodies.
Instapundit is a conservative blog maintained by Glenn Reynolds, a law professor at the University of Tennessee.
Popbitch is a weekly UK-based celebrity and pop music newsletter and associated dating website from the early 2000s. Much of the material for the newsletter comes from the Popbitch message boards, frequented by music industry insiders, gossips and the casually interested. The board has at various times been credited for celebrity rumours appearing in the press, and the coining of many expressions that have gone on to enjoy wider usage.
A milblog or warblog is a blog devoted mostly or wholly to covering news events concerning an ongoing war. Sometimes the use of the term "warblog" implies that the blog concerned has a pro-war slant. The term "milblog" implies that the author is a member of, or has some connection to the military; the more specific term "soldierblog" is sometimes used for the former.
During the early stages of the Iraq War, members of the United States Army and the Central Intelligence Agency committed a series of human rights violations and war crimes against detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. These abuses included physical abuse, sexual humiliation, physical and psychological torture, and rape, as well as the killing of Manadel al-Jamadi and the desecration of his body. The abuses came to public attention with the publication of photographs by CBS News in April 2004, causing shock and outrage and receiving widespread condemnation within the United States and internationally. The International Committee of the Red Cross reported that most detainees were civilians with no links to armed groups.
"Cheese-eating surrender monkeys", sometimes shortened to "surrender monkeys", is a pejorative term for French people. The term was coined in 1995 by Ken Keeler, a writer for the television series The Simpsons, and has entered two Oxford quotation dictionaries.
Glenn Harlan Reynolds is an American legal scholar who is the Beauchamp Brogan Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Tennessee College of Law. He is known for his American politics blog, Instapundit.
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News satire or news comedy is a type of parody presented in a format typical of mainstream journalism, and called a satire because of its content. News satire has been around almost as long as journalism itself, but it is particularly popular on the web, with websites like The Onion and The Babylon Bee, where it is relatively easy to mimic a legitimate news site. News satire relies heavily on irony and deadpan humor.
David Davies is a British broadcaster and consultant, formerly the executive director of the Football Association in England. He is a regular contributor to BBC News television and radio programmes and other networks. Since retiring from the FA, he has worked as a consultant to sporting and other organisations worldwide. Today he is a consultant with Portland Communications, based in London, advising on sport and other subjects.
Ace of Spades HQ, Ace of Spades, or AoS is a conservative and humor-driven U.S.-based political blog covering current events, legal issues, military hardware, and salacious topics in popular culture. The blog was first launched in 2003. It has been quoted, mentioned, referenced or linked by The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, CNN, National Review, The Weekly Standard, and many notable online magazines/blogs, as well as on the floor of the US House of Representatives. The site's leading blogger, the pseudonymous "Ace of Spades," has also appeared as a guest expert on Fox News, although it is quite rare for him to make media appearances. Current cobloggers include "Buck Throckmorton," "CBD," "J.J. Sefton," "Joe Mannix," "KT," "Misanthropic Humanitarian," "Weasel," "Weird Dave," and several inactive cobloggers.
State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III (ISBN 0-7432-7223-4) is a 2006 book by Bob Woodward that examines how the George W. Bush administration managed the Iraq War after the 2003 invasion. It follows Woodward's previous books on the Bush administration, Bush at War and Plan of Attack. Based on interviews with a number of people in the Bush administration, the book makes a number of allegations about the administration.
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Leading to War is a 2008 American documentary film composed entirely of archival news footage of the declarations of the United States President George W. Bush and his administration explaining their reasons to attack Iraq in 2003. The film is presented as a historical record and highlights the rhetorical devices and techniques employed by a government to wage war against another nation.
The Martin Eisenstadt hoax is an elaborate scheme of filmmakers Dan Mirvish and Eitan Gorlin that involved the creation of a fictional "talking head", Martin Eisenstadt, who was quoted by numerous major news outlets, as well as countless blogs, all of which failed to verify his actual existence. "Eisenstadt" claimed to be the source of commentary about Sarah Palin in the wake of John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. Mirvish and Gorlin have since written a satirical novel called I Am Martin Eisenstadt: One Man's Adventures with the Last Republicans for Farrar, Straus and Giroux ISBN 978-0-86547-914-2. The book was written under Eisenstadt's pseudonym and purports to be a first-person memoir of Eisenstadt's experience with the McCain/Palin campaign, including buying Palin's wardrobe. In the book, the Eisenstadt character denies rumors that he does not exist.