The Onion's Congressional Hostage Gag Finds Few Laughs
The Onion, a satiric media organization, published an article today reporting that there was a hostage situation inside the Capitol building. According to the story, "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."
The Onion created significant buzz for the article this morning with their Twitter and Facebook accounts. At 10:33 a.m. The Onion tweeted, "BREAKING: Witnesses reporting screams and gunfire heard inside the Capitol building." The tweet, "BREAKING: Capitol building being evacuated. 12 children held hostage by group of armed congressmen. #CongressHostage" was posted shortly after.
Along with the hostage allegations, The Onion also published a doctored photo of House Speaker John Boehner holding a gun to a young girl's head. The Capitol Police responded to the story with a statement saying, "Twitter feeds are reporting false information concerning current conditions at the U.S. Capitol. Conditions at the U.S. Capitol are currently normal. There is no credibility to these stories or the Twitter feeds."
Although The Onion has 1.9 million fans on Facebook, many people found the joke inappropriate in light of the arrest of a Massachusetts man in connection with a plot to blow up the U.S. Capitol and the Pentagon. This afternoon the "#CongressHostage" hashtag had hundreds of complaints and criticisms concerning the article.
A spokeswoman for The Onion said the Twitter account was not hacked. The Capitol Police are currently investigating the publication for making false reports.
