ScrappleFace
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
ScrappleFace.com, the daily conservative news satire site, was started in July 2002 by Scott Ott, a former journalist. Mr. 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 the site.
ScrappleFace became marginally famous in January 2003 when Mr. Ott posted a story under the headline "Rumsfeld Sorry for Axis of Weasels Remark". Glenn Reynolds linked to the story at InstaPundit.com, noting that he had it on good authority that the Weasels post was being circulated at the White House and Pentagon. Two days later, the New York Post used the phrase "Axis of Weasel" in a large-font front-page headline. Mr. Ott later published a collection of ScrappleFace stories through MacMenamin Press under the title "Axis of Weasels" (now out of print).
Since its inception, Mr. Ott has written more than 2,500 ScrappleFace stories (as of 3/15/2007) on politics, the war on terror, business, science, theology and even sports.
His work has been quoted and linked on thousands of blogs, as well as in The Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, the Kansas City Star, The Weekly Standard, World Magazine, Wired and the websites of The Wall Street Journal, the BBC and many more. ScrappleFace stories have also been quoted on radio by Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Roger Hedgecock, Michael Medved, Bill Bennett, dozens of regional radio hosts as well as on CNN and MSNBC. At least two ScrappleFace stories achieved such fame that they have been included on the myth-busting site Snopes.com
The name ScrappleFace was coined by Mr. Ott's late grandmother, Jessica McMaster (Jun. 16, 1915 - Jan. 31, 2006), who along with maternal grandfather, James McMaster (b. Jul. 19, 1921), cared for Mr. Ott from the age of five. Mrs. McMaster frequently referred to the family dog, Mac, as "Scrappleface" presumably because the dog would eat anything, and scrapple is made of anything. Mr. Ott chose the name knowing that the URL would be available because no one else would know the word.
