More than a million copies of a 14-page parody issue of The New York Times – put together by a collective of left-wing activists and like-minded journalists – were handed out free in six cities by 1,000 volunteers yesterday.
Dated July 4, 2009, it contained a lead headline reading “IRAQ WAR ENDS” and articles announcing the abolition of corporate lobbying, a maximum wage for CEOs and a recall of gas-fueled cars.
There was also an “interview” in which Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice admits that the Bush administration knew before the invasion of Iraq that Saddam Hussein had no WMDs.
In other words, it not only looked exactly like the Times – it read like it, too.
No surprise, then, when a spokesman for the parody admitted that three Times journalists – whose names he refused to reveal – took part in the project.
For them, it was probably nothing more than just another day’s work.