"Iraquis Reject Democracy" -- news spam?

Musicat · August 11, 2003, 9:26pm

The following was sent to me by a friend, who wanted to know if it was true.

 August 10, 2003 Andy Borowitz 

 CITING CALIFORNIA, IRAQIS REJECT DEMOCRACY 

 *Governing Council Recoils in Horror at News from Golden State *

 In what was seen as a setback to the establishment of democratic institutions in Iraq, the Iraqi Governing Council today voted unanimously to reject democracy as a form of government, citing the California gubernatorial race as a worst-case scenario. 

 "The Americans say that what has happened in California cannot possibly happen here," said Abdul al-Shibli, a council representative from Mosul.  "We are not prepared to take that risk." 

 Interim Iraqi administrator L. Paul Bremer III had attempted a blackout of news from the Golden State, arguing that coverage of California's election would "not be helpful" at this sensitive stage in the evolution of Iraqi democracy. 

 But much to Mr. Bremer's dismay the al-Jazeera television network beamed reports about the California race into Iraq late Friday, stirring fresh fears about democracy as a viable form of government in this war-torn country. 

 "Saddam Hussein was a brutal madman, but at least he was qualified," said Mr. al-Shibli, in an apparent reference to California's motley field of candidates. 

 Gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger, campaigning on Sunday in Carmel, California, seemed not to hear reporters' shouted questions about the Iraqi controversy, saying only, "I have so much energy!  I have so much fire!" 

 A spokesman for Mr. Schwarzenegger later clarified the candidate's remarks, saying, "Mr. Schwarzenegger has so much energy and so much fire."

This has all the earmarks of a bogus, fictitious news article. I can find nothing in google or google news using key words or phrases, nothing on major news sites like ABCnews.com or the Chicago Tribune. Snopes has nothing yet, although they often take a while to post new stuff. My guess is it was lifted from a satirical blog or just made up and emailed out like so much spam.

Anybody know where this came from?

friedo · August 11, 2003, 9:53pm

Satire.

Musicat · August 12, 2003, 2:14am

Thanks, friedo! I dunno why “Andy Borowitz” didn’t get flagged in my googling – I thought I remembered something about that name, but couldn’t put a finger on it.

This is not the first “bogus news” article I have been handed in the last several evolutionary years of the Internet. Most of them I recognize and can refute quickly; this one took just a little longer.

I think I see a disturbing trend here: someone writes a satirical article which is extracted from its source just enough to seem authentic, at least to the gullible. Then it becomes Internet “fact” merely from the explosive distribution.

Thank G^d for the SDMB!

And this smiley is for E.M.: ;j