Yes Men distribute prank copy of NYT ("Iraq War Ends"; "Ex-Secretary Apologizes for W.M.D. Scare")

[Newsjock]

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/pranksters-spoof-the-times/

In what appears to be an elaborate hoax, pranksters — their identities as yet unconfirmed — distributed hundreds or possibly thousands of free copies of a spoof edition of The New York Times on Wednesday morning at busy subway stations around the city, including Grand Central Terminal, Washington and Union Squares, 14th and 23rd Street stations along Eighth Avenue, and at Pacific Street in Brooklyn, among others.

The phony papers — with a large headline “IRAQ WAR ENDS” — surprised commuters, many of whom took the free copies thinking they were legitimate. The paper is dated July 4, 2009 and imagines a liberal utopia of national health care, a rebuilt economy, progressive taxation, a national oil fund to study climate change, and other goals of progressive politics.

The hoax was accompanied by a Web site that mimics the look of The Times’s real Web site. A page of the spoof site contained links to dozens of progressive organizations, which were also listed in the print edition.

... The Web gossip site Gawker reported that the prank may be the work of the liberal pranksters known as the Yes Men, who were the subject of a 2004 documentary film.

[nxylas]

1. I like this better than the real NYT

Shame it's only a spoof.

[Eric J in MN]

2. We need more trust-busting.

Too big to fail, too big to exist, as Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) says.

Making these huge corporations smaller is the best way to avoid being asked to bail them out, again.