The Onion

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The Onion
Type Parody newspaper
Format Tabloid
(also radio, video and websites)
Owner Onion, Inc.
Editor Scott Dikkers
Founded 1988
Headquarters 536 Broadway
10th Floor
New York, NY 10012
United States
Circulation 690,000 (per 2008 Media Kit)
Website: theonion.com
For the vegetable, see onion.

The Onion is an American "fake news" organization. It features satirical articles reporting on international, national, and local news as well as an entertainment newspaper and website known as The A.V. Club. It claims a national print circulation of 690,000[1] and says 61 percent of its web site readers are between 18 and 44 years old per the 2008 media kit.

The Onion's articles comment on current events, both real and imagined. It parodies traditional newspaper features, such as editorials, man-on-the-street interviews, and stock quotes, as well as traditional newspaper layout and AP-style editorial voice. Much of its humor depends on presenting everyday events as newsworthy items, and by playing off of commonly used phrases such as the headline "Drugs Win Drug War."

A second part of the newspaper is a non-satirical entertainment section called The A.V. Club that features interviews and reviews of various newly-released media, and other weekly features. The print edition also contains restaurant reviews and previews of upcoming live entertainment specific to cities where a print edition is published. The online incarnation of The A.V. Club has its own domain, includes its own regular features (including the syndicated weekly sex advice column Savage Love), A.V. Club blogs and reader forums, and presents itself as a separate entity from The Onion itself.

Contents

[edit] History

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The Onion's office in New York City.
The Onion's office in New York City.

The Onion was founded in 1988 and originally published in Madison, Wisconsin, by two juniors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Tim Keck and Christopher Johnson; they sold it to colleagues the following year.The Onion was at first only a success in a limited number of cities and towns, notably those with major universities (e.g. Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago, Boulder, Champaign-Urbana). The original Onion mascot was "Lucky," the Onion chimp. Lucky was discontinued early on and is only remembered by those who read the paper before it went national. Originally the entire bottom two inches of the paper could be cut off for coupons to local Madison establishments such as various cheap student-centered eateries and Four Star Video, which provided the Onion editors with videos in return.[citation needed]

The creation of its website in 1996 allowed it to receive national attention. In 2000 as the publication had broken through to the mass market, The Onion was approached by Comedy Central for a buyout that would broaden the scope and reach of The Onion's brand of satire into other forms of media. In early 2001 the company relocated its offices to New York City. Nevertheless, the paper continues to make occasional Madison references, placing odd stories in surrounding towns or running photographs of local landmarks to illustrate stories set elsewhere. In April 2007, The Onion launched 'The Onion News Network,' a web video send up of 24 hour TV news.

The paper's founders went on to become publishers of other alternative weeklies: Keck of the Seattle weekly The Stranger and Johnson of Albuquerque's Weekly Alibi.

"People always ask questions about where the name The Onion came from," said President Sean Mills in an interview with Wikinews, "and when I recently asked Tim Keck, who was one of the founders, he told me...literally that his uncle said he should call it The Onion when he saw him and Chris Johnson eating an onion sandwich. They had literally just cut up the onion and put it on bread." According to Editorial Manager Chet Clem, their food budget was so low when they started the paper that they were down to white bread and onions.[2] Reportedly, it was Chris Johnson's uncle, Wm. Nels Johnson, who came up with the idea to name the paper The Onion.[3]

[edit] Fictional history

Officially, the paper purports to be over 250 years old, having originally published in the mid 18th century. It was named the "Mercantile Onion" because those were the only two English words the paper's immigrant founder, Herman Ulysses Zweibel, knew at the time. (Zwiebel is German for onion - note the difference in spelling.) The newspaper's motto was Tu Stultus Es, or 'You are stupid' in Latin.

In 1896 Zweibel's 20-year-old son, T. Herman Zweibel became editor, a position he supposedly holds to this day despite being over a century old and largely senile. For much of the 20th century the paper was highly reactionary and violently opposed every social reform the century brought forward, from women's suffrage to married characters sleeping together in the same bed on television.

[edit] Fictional chronology

  • 1756: Friedrich Siegfried Zweibel founded the Mercantile-Onion [4]
  • 1850: F. Siegfreid's son, Herman U., took over the company.
  • 1888: T. Herman Zweibel, assumes editorial directorship[5]
  • 1892: Onion 24-Hour Television News Network (ONN) founded. It can now be seen in 811 countries around the world.
  • 1896: T. Herman Zweibel, F. Siegfried's grandson, took over the company, upon death of Herman U. Zweibel.[5]
  • 1958: Zweibel was court-ordered to retire.
  • c. 1960: Onion Radio founded
  • 2000: Zweibel left Earth itself (The Final Frontier, T. Herman Zweibel).[6]

[edit] Distribution

The Onion's printed edition is distributed free in Madison, Milwaukee, New York City, Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Denver/Boulder, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Austin, and Washington, D.C..[7] It is also sold in bookstores worldwide, including the United Kingdom, and is available by mail through paid subscription.

[edit] Regular features

Editorial Manager Chet Clem and President Sean Mills.
Editorial Manager Chet Clem and President Sean Mills.

Regular features of The Onion include:

  • "STATshot", an illustrated statistical snapshot which parodies "USA Today Snapshots"
  • The "Infograph" (a.k.a. "Infographic"), with a bulleted list of items on a theme.
  • Point-Counterpoint
  • Guest opinion pieces and regular columnists
  • Bizarre horoscopes
  • "The ONION in History": a front page produced in the look of newspapers of an earlier era, from the book "Our Dumb Century"
  • "In the News" photograph and caption with no accompanying story (such as "Frederick's of Anchorage Debuts Crotchless Long Underwear", "National Association Advances Colored Person", and "Owls are Assholes")
  • "American Voices" (formerly called "What Do You Think?"), a mock vox populi survey on a topical current event. There are six respondents for each topic who seem to have been chosen intentionally to represent a diverse selection of ages, races, and socio-economic classes. Although their names and professions change every week, photos of the same six people are always used. One of them is often described as a systems analyst.
  • An editorial cartoon drawn by "Kelly". The comic—the most controversial feature in The Onion[2]—is a parody of right-wing cartoons. "Kelly" is a pseudonym of Ward Sutton.[8] Roughly half of the cartoons feature the Statue of Liberty shedding tears for one reason or another.

The website was redesigned in 2005:

  • All archives were made free, and Onion Premium, a failed attempt at a paid-subscriber model section of the site, was discontinued.
  • "What Do You Think?" became "American Voices," with the question updated daily, and only three responders for each question
  • "In the News" was retitled "From the Print Edition"
  • The Onion began publishing web-only content on a daily basis, such as a daily fictional stock market analysis titled "Stock Watch" (one of which appears in the print edition every week), a web opinion poll titled "QuickPoll" (since discontinued), "National News Highlights" of three regional stories, The Onion Weekender (a parody of PARADE magazine) and The Onion Magazine (a parody of The New York Times Magazine), and The President's Weekly Radio Address.
  • The nationally syndicated Onion Radio News, a brief audio clip read by anchor Doyle Redland, became a daily feature. In early 2006, Onion Radio News podcast was launched, and quickly shot to #1 on the iTunes list of top podcasts.
  • A sports section was introduced, having archival material from old issues in addition to new articles (such as "Matt Leinart Wins Beauty Portion of 2006 NFL Draft") and rotating headlines such as "New York Rangers Honor Proud Madison Square Garden Tradition by Losing".

The Onion website is updated every day, most significantly on Tuesday afternoons, and The Onion newspaper is distributed on Wednesdays.

[edit] Reporters and editors

The Onion's fictional editor is T. Herman Zweibel (Zwiebel is German for onion, and also close to the name Zweifel, a family closely associated with the Madison newspaper The Capital Times), who has "held the position since 1901" and is rather insane; the real editor is currently Scott Dikkers and the current writing staff comprises Mike DiCenzo, Megan Ganz, Joe Garden, Dan Guterman, Todd Hanson, John Harris, Chris Karwowski, John Krewson, Chad Nackers, Joe Randazzo and Seth Reiss. Past writers have included Mark Banker, Max Cannon, Amie Barrodale, Rich Dahm, Janet Ginsburg, Tim Harrod, David Javerbaum, Ben Karlin, Peter Koechley, Carol Kolb, Tom Scharpling, Maria Schneider, Robert Siegel and Jack Szwergold. The Onion does not accept unsolicited freelance contributions. The Onion News Network is produced by Will Graham and Julie Smith and the Head Writer is former Onion Editor Carol Kolb.

The Onion publishes several columns by (fictional) regular and guest writers. The regular contributors include:

  • Jim Anchower, an enthusiastic slacker and stoner with a different job every few weeks, whose musical tastes are stuck in 1970s rock and roll.
  • Jean Teasdale, an overweight, nerdish woman with kitsch tastes, whose constantly upbeat attitude always finds the bright side of her otherwise depressing white trash life. Her column, "A Room of Jean's Own," was originally called "The Onion Fat Lady."
  • Smoove B, a smooth talking ladies' man.
  • Jackie Harvey, a clueless celebrity spotter.
  • Larry Groznic, an overweight, confrontational "fanboy" whose disagreements with friends over obscure "nerd trivia" are documented in hostile letters typically demanding conversion to his point of view.
  • Gorzo the Mighty, the Emperor of the Universe, villain in the style of 1930s science fiction films.
  • Department Head Rawlings, the mysterious head of an unnamed organization of international spies.

Former contributors include:

  • Herbert Kornfeld, accounts receivable supervisor, an accountant who was raised on the streets and speaks in gangsta rap-isms and ebonics. Killed on May 1, 2007.[9]
  • Arch Danielson, an elderly man who wrote "The Silver Screen", a series of rambling, non-sensical movie reviews that often diverted towards random topics. His persona was retired around 1998, in favor of Jackie Harvey.

[edit] Onion News Network videos

In March 2007, The Onion launched The Onion News Network, a daily web video broadcast that had been in production since sometime in mid-2006 with a story about an illegal immigrant taking an executive's $800,000 a year job for $600,000 a year. The Onion has reportedly invested about $1 million in the production and has hired 15 new staffers to focus on the production of this video broadcast.[10] Carol Kolb, former editor-in-chief of The Onion, is the ONN's head writer.

In a Wikinews interview in November 2007, Onion President Sean Mills said the ONN has been a huge hit. "We get over a million downloads a week, which makes it one of the more successful produced-for-the-Internet videos," said Mills. "If we’re not the most successful, we’re one of the most. It is a 24 hour news network. We have a new show that is part of the platform, but we also have a Sunday morning talk show that’s called In The Know and we just launched a morning show this last week called Today Now. It has been really exciting; we’ll have some new shows, show some archive footage and do some more in sports over the next year."[2]

[edit] Film

Main article: The Onion Movie

The Onion Movie is a direct-to-video film written by then-Onion editor Robert Siegel and writer Todd Hanson and directed by music video directors Tom Kuntz and Mike Maguire.

Created in 2003, Fox Searchlight Pictures was on board to release the movie, originally called The Untitled Onion Movie, but at some point in the process, directors Tom Kuntz and Mike Maguire and writer Robert Siegel walked away from the project.

In 2006, New Regency Productions took over the production of the troubled project. After two years of being in limbo, the film was released on DVD on June 3, 2008. It is now credited as being directed by James Kleiner but still written by Hanson and Siegel.

[edit] The Onion taken seriously

Upon occasion, the straight-faced manner in which The Onion reports non-existent happenings has resulted in outside parties mistakenly citing Onion stories as real news.

“ Almost every piece of hate mail starts with the line, 'Usually I love The Onion, but this time you’ve gone too far…' We responded to that with, 'Normally I love your pornographic website, but this time you’ve gone too far…' Someone will always be offended by something. ”

—Chet Clem, Editorial Manager, [2]
  • An article on Harry Potter inciting kids to practice witchcraft was believed by many to be real and was forwarded by many "concerned Christians."[15] Columnist Ellen Makkai and others who believe the Harry Potter books "recruit" children to Satanism have also been taken in by the article, using quotes from it as "evidence" for their claims.[16] The story was quickly exposed as a hoax.
  • A January 2008 video produced by the Onion News Network, and consisting of a spoof of a morning show story on a child called Chad Carter who had bankrupted the Make a Wish Foundation by "wishing for unlimited wishes" was believed by some on the internet to be genuine. The story was identified as fake by the urban legends web site Snopes.[17]

[edit] Presidential Seal dispute

In September 2005, the assistant counsel to President George W. Bush, Grant M. Dixton, wrote a cease-and-desist letter to The Onion, asking the paper to stop using the presidential seal, which is used in an online segment poking fun at the President through parodies of his weekly radio address.[18] The law governing the Presidential Seal is contained in 18 U.S.C. § 713:

Whoever knowingly displays any printed or other likeness of the great seal of the United States, or of the seals of the President or the Vice President of the United States, or the seal of the United States Senate, or the seal of the United States House of Representatives, or the seal of the United States Congress, or any facsimile thereof, in, or in connection with, any advertisement, poster, circular, book, pamphlet, or other publication, public meeting, play, motion picture, telecast, or other production, or on any building, monument, or stationery, for the purpose of conveying, or in a manner reasonably calculated to convey, a false impression of sponsorship or approval by the Government of the United States or by any department, agency, or instrumentality thereof, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both. (emphasis added)

This section would seem to allow the use of the presidential seal by The Onion. However, by Executive Order, President Richard Nixon specifically enumerated the allowed uses of the Presidential Seal which is more restrictive than the above title (Executive Order 11649), but which allows for exceptions to be granted upon formal request.

The Onion has responded with a letter asking for formal use of the Seal in accordance with the Executive Order, while still declaring that the use is legitimate under 18 U.S.C. § 713.

The letter written by Rochelle H. Klaskin, The Onion's lawyer, is quoted in The New York Times as saying "It is inconceivable that anyone would think that, by using the seal, The Onion intends to 'convey... sponsorship or approval' by the president," referring to 18 U.S.C. § 713, but then went on to ask that the letter be considered a formal application asking for permission to use the seal.[citation needed]

[edit] Books

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Onion Media Kit 2008, <http://mediakit.theonion.com/national_print.html>. Retrieved on 2 October 2007 
  2. ^ a b c d An interview with The Onion, David Shankbone, Wikinews, November 24, 2007.
  3. ^ Parodies of current events catch interest of unlikely readers, Kathlyn Hotynski, The Spectator (University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire), February 8, 2007.
  4. ^ The Onion: Our Dumb Century
  5. ^ a b http://www.zweibelmemorial.org/timeline.php Retrieved 2007-10-18.
  6. ^ http://www.zweibelmemorial.org/foundation2.php Retrieved 2007-10-18.
  7. ^ Onion Media Kit 2006. Retrieved on 2007-01-18.
  8. ^ Hackwork hacked, Los Angeles Times, 29 March 2007, accessed 27 April 2007.
  9. ^ White-On-White Violence Claims Life Of Accounts Receivable Supervisor, <http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/white_on_white_violence>. Retrieved on 2 October 2007 
  10. ^ Press ‘Play’ for Satire: March 23, 2007 The Wall Street Journal Article.
  11. ^ "Onion Taken Seriously, Film at 11"Wired,
  12. ^ "'Deborah Norville Tonight' for March 12", MSNBC
  13. ^ Wired 7.03: Award-Winning Local Journalists Reflect Own Self-Hatred Back on Nightmarish World*
  14. ^ "Hvem har hugget Sean Penns emailadresse?", TV 2 Tip
  15. ^ "Harry Potter Satanism", Snopes.com
  16. ^ "Harry the Wiz is the Wrong Biz", Creators.com
  17. ^ Urban Legends Reference Pages: Make-A-Wish Foundation Bankrupted by Unlimited Wishes
  18. ^ Random Perspective: White House Sues “The Onion” to Cover up Iran Invasion Plan

[edit] External links

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