Fresh Politics, New Media

It's hard to believe that the third week of classes is almost over at Towson University. We've been having a lot of fun in my Towson Seminar ( Popular Culture and Politics: Comedy, Entertainment, Celebrity, and Democracy ) and we've been reviewing some interesting video content In fact, I'm struck by how much material the 2012 campaign has already provided. We spent some time talking about Clint Eastwood's Invisible Chair debacle at the Republican National Convention -- what a great example of celebrity politics gone wrong! If you don't believe me, see for yourself: We've been giving equal treatment to the Democrats too -- a great gem from this past week was this New York Times article about Joe Biden's get together with a group of bikers in Ohio. The NYT journalist penning the piece, Sarah Wheaton, offers some spot on commentary regarding the picture featured in the article. Even she can't believe it's not ripped from the pages of The Oni

Yesterday, The Onion , America's Finest News Source posted a serious of tweets and a satirical article  about members of Congress taking school children hostage in the US Capitol. The article also featured a doctored photo (see below) and a short video clip. While the story was obviously fake, the article and the tweets in particular have captured the attention of the mainstream media. For example, here's some   commentary from The Washington Post  and an article in today's New York Times . In addition, the Capitol Police is now investigating the situation and The Onion 's false reports of the attack.  The Onion 's reach on Twitter, (the satirical outlet had over 3 million followers as of August 2011 according to a report by Mashable ) may explain much of the attention. Especially when you compare The Onion 's Twitter followers to those of traditional print publications (from Mashable):  "That’s about 300,000 more than  Time , three times more