How Spoof News Satirists the Daily Squib Changed the Course of History

by

Aur

During the U.S. election Democratic primaries nomination fight of 2008, polls indicated that Hillary Clinton had finally overtaken Barack Obama and seemed poised to win a shot at the White House as the first ever female president of the United States. She had rallied the Democratic party base. She had electrified the American people. She also had her husband, Bill, firmly behind her waving a banner and she had firmly established herself in the consciousness of her countrymen as the surefire presidential choice that would make history.

Then, something truly astonishing occurred, the Daily Squib, a maverick British satirical outsider published an outlandish piece of spoof news that shook the heart of America. The Daily Squib headline ‘Ku Klux Klan Endorses Obama’ went ballistic, the slogan even turning up at election rallies with Obama telling people to ‘quieten down already’. The tag line for the Daily Squib article was a perfectly photoshopped banner held by Klan members with the slogan ‘KKK Anything better than Hillary. Vote Obama’. Who were these spoof news upstarts from the U.K.? The story went viral and soon became the No1 topic of conversation in America. Almost overnight, Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers began to drop precipitously as the arrayed forces of electronically transmitted satire propelled Obama over the shoulders of Hillary Clinton’s sure thing. Before you knew it, Clinton was superseded by Obama who went on to became the first ever African president. For the first time in American history, a presidential candidate had seen all her hopes and dreams undone by the sheer emotive power of naked, unbridled satire.

No one can doubt that 2008 was a truly powerful time for satire and the viral power of the internet was its vociferous piston driving home a message of hope, clarity and racial harmony. How things were to change thereafter.

The unbridled success of the Daily Squib soon after encouraged many other satire/spoof news sites to pop up all over the internet trying to capitalise on the satirical revolution it had engendered.

Naturally, with the flood of every Joe and their dog starting a spoof news website, this in turn muddied the waters and managed to saturate the already crowded internet, consigning it to a plethora of websites simply vying for traffic and advertising revenue through populist banal headlines with not much satire involved.

Through the mire, the Daily Squib managed to inflict rational thought on more serious subjects like religion, taking swipes at the fascistic behaviour of America’s TSA, and level some horrific satirical warnings of what may come in the future causing mass hysteria in the Middle East, it even managed to encouraged Paris Hilton to join Islam.

Unlike many other publications, the Daily Squib has never advertised, is not funded by any corporation or organisation, is not affiliated to any political party or religion, and has very limited resources despite its long list of spoof contact addresses. It therefore languishes in the outer reaches of the corporate pool, a satirical maverick with a cult following and no monetary support. If there ever was a spoof news site that followed the tenets of Juvenal, and true satire then the Daily Squib wins its twisted crown of digital thorns.

About the Author:

AurFor more information about spoof news please visit our site http://www.dailysquib.co.uk

Article Source:

eArticlesOnline.com

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