A day before a UN summit on climate change, an activist prankster group distributed copies of a fake newspaper mimicking the New York Post to draw attention to global warming.
The front-page story in the newspaper parody yesterday warned of “massive climate catastrophes” and “public health disasters.”
Volunteers for The Yes Men distributed the free parody outside busy commuter hubs in Manhattan and Brooklyn, including one of the city’s main train stations, Penn Station.
Jacques Servin, one of the group’s founders, said The Post was targeted as one of the city’s most read and most entertainingly written newspapers.
In a statement titled “Witless Spoof in Flawless Format,” the actual Post said, “It’s no surprise that they tried to spoof the New York Post; they figured this time, they’d choose a paper people actually love to read. But this is a limp effort. It has none of the wit and insight New Yorkers expect from their favorite paper. The Post will not be hiring any of their headline writers.”
Last November, volunteers assembled by The Yes Men handed out copies of a fake New York Times across the country. It said the Iraq and Afghanistan occupations had ended, and solutions for global warming, health care and the economy were near.