Capitol Police investigating The Onion for fake hostage crisis tweets

[Cail]

This may not deserve its own thread, but i found it fucking hilarious

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/cutline/...185711356.html

The Twitter feed operated by the satirical national newspaper The Onion created some confusion in Washington on Thursday with a series of tweets proclaiming breaking news of a hostage situation inside the Capitol building.

A pair of tweets started the apparent commotion. "BREAKING: Witnesses reporting screams and gunfire heard inside Capitol building," the first tweet read, followed by another: "BREAKING: Capitol building being evacuated. 12 children held hostage by group of armed congressmen #CongressHostage"

The tweets recalled a similar flurry last month, when the Twitter feed for NBC News issued several false reports of an apparent terrorist attack on New York two days before the 10th anniversary of 9/11. NBC said it was the victim of a hack, and that the FBI was investigating the incident.

The Onion's feed then published a third tweet with a link to a satirical article with the headline, "Congress Takes Group Of Schoolchildren Hostage": "Brandishing shotguns and semiautomatic pistols, members of the 112th U.S. Congress took a class of visiting schoolchildren hostage today, barricading themselves inside the Capitol rotunda and demanding $12 trillion dollars in cash."

Successive tweets satirically reported the hostage situation as if it was happening in real time:

Child with asthma released as gesture of good will #CongressHostage

Reports from those who know Congress say the legislative body had seemed desperate as of late #CongressHostage

Three-course lunch from Charlie Palmer's Steakhouse delivered as per Rep. Boehner's demands #CongressHostage

The real U.S. Capitol police, however, didn't find it so funny, issuing a statement on the matter.

"It has come to our attention that recent Twitter feeds are reporting false information concerning current conditions at the U.S. Capitol. Conditions at the U.S. Capitol are currently normal," U.S. Capitol police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said in a press release. "There is no credibility to these stories or the twitter feeds. The U.S. Capitol Police are currently investigating the reporting."

When reached by The Cutline, a spokeswoman for The Onion declined to comment.

[Headspace]

oh Onion

[Seanr]

Capitol police don't know how to computer

[Correction]

Rep. Boehner transforms into hundred-foot tall mechanical tripod alien, cuts bloody swath across the Capitol Mall. #CongressHostage

[Correction]

Don't worry everyone, the police are on the job!

[Auspice]

Ya know, when I saw the tweets this morning I somehow knew some idiots would think it was real. -_-

[tyven]

my bff is capitol police. those motherfuckers go hard. like murder death kill you for disobeying traffic order hard.

[bigrougabagel]

People are pretty dumb. And its so awesome.

http://www.literallyunbelievable.org/

[Celeste]

John Boehner has ascended, now a one-winged orange bishie. #CongressHostage

[Tagus]

Serious question... does anybody actually think the onion is funny? I think it's made me laugh a time or two, but it's rare.

Edit: I just second guessed my assessment of the onion's unfunnyness, so I went to their website and saw an article reporting that baseball players swallow up to 6 baseballs a year in their sleep... so yeah. I guess I'm gonna stick with it.

[Coren]

I have been very entertained by some Onion 'articles'. This one not so much though.

[pohibaba]

This was either a really stupid joke gone awry or a really genius marketing ploy; I'm not sure which.

[mightyg]

Serious question... does anybody actually think the onion is funny? I think it's made me laugh a time or two, but it's rare.

Edit: I just second guessed my assessment of the onion's unfunnyness, so I went to their website and saw an article reporting that baseball players swallow up to 6 baseballs a year in their sleep... so yeah. I guess I'm gonna stick with it.

LOL 6 Baseballs? You'd think professional athletes would be more careful with their equipment.

[Plow]

Serious question... does anybody actually think the onion is funny? I think it's made me laugh a time or two, but it's rare.

Edit: I just second guessed my assessment of the onion's unfunnyness, so I went to their website and saw an article reporting that baseball players swallow up to 6 baseballs a year in their sleep... so yeah. I guess I'm gonna stick with it.

that's actually a pretty good joke, especially considering the timing, if you're aware of the whole thing where someone started a hoax on the internet about people swallowing x amount of spiders in their sleep per year, which then became "common knowledge"

[jmc]

Don't worry everyone, the police are on the job!

Thank god you showed the state police, and not boston.

[Saga]

Thank god you showed the state police, and not boston.

lol, I got to interview Dave Willis (ATHF creator) and Dana Snyder (voice of Master Shake) a couple years ago and I asked them about that incident, here's from the interview:

DAVE: I have select things that I’m allowed to say about it. I’ll say this: We made a whole episode about it that is sitting on a shelf at Turner. I’m talking, you know, quarter of a million dollars was put into an episode that will never air. Will never air. I am going to ask if we can air a little bit of it in the live show.
DANA: In Boston.
DAVE: Because honestly, honestly—no one has seen it. It’s been on a shelf for three years now.

[Cail]

wait what happened?

[Not Kuno]

The Onion is a hit or miss. Some of their hits are fucking gold. High level troll tier shit.

[Pikarya]

Americunt confirmed. This is just embarrassing.

[Melena]

wait what happened?

If your talking about the boston thing, a few years ago the ATHF guys in a clever marketing stunt put out light brights of the moonnites in random places. Someone in boston over reacted big time and thought they were bombs and sent out state and city police to "disarm the threat"