# Onion Scoops Election? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 9, 2000, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/onion-scoops-election/40404 "2000-11-09T01:44:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![whc.03grady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@whc.03grady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whc.03grady)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2000, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/onion-scoops-election/40404/1 "2000-11-09T01:44:48Z")
Did [the Onion](http://www.theonion.com) staff stay up all night to write their lead story, or did they unintentionally/ironically scoop it? ---
**Author:** ![black\_rabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f19dbf/32.png) [@black\_rabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/black_rabbit)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2000, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/onion-scoops-election/40404/2 "2000-11-09T01:49:05Z")
The online edition usually comes out arounf 4 or 5 pm on the day **before** the date on the issue, so yeah, they scooped it. A sign of the End Times? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2000, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/onion-scoops-election/40404/3 "2000-11-09T15:40:44Z")
It wasn’t very hard to predict that it would be a close election. Furthermore, it wasn’t hard to predict that whoever won would give a speech filled with vague political nonsense. Incidentally, I think that whatever the result of this election, anyone who uses the sentence “I have a mandate from the American people” should be slapped silly. ---
**Author:** ![Avumede](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/avumede/32/7235_2.png) [@Avumede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avumede)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2000, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/onion-scoops-election/40404/4 "2000-11-09T15:52:47Z")
When I read it on Tuesday morning online, I don’t recall it saying how the election was close. The article was a satire on how identical the two candidates were. When the election turned out the way it did, it suddenly got a new meaning, and I suspect they edited the lead on it to make it more appropriate. ---
**Author:** ![Yue\_Han](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/eada6e/32.png) [@Yue\_Han](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yue_Han)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2000, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/onion-scoops-election/40404/5 "2000-11-09T17:06:44Z")
It looked like that at 5 or 6 pm Tuesday. –John ---
**Author:** ![fish\_in\_the\_sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7ba0ec/32.png) [@fish\_in\_the\_sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fish_in_the_sky)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2000, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/onion-scoops-election/40404/6 "2000-11-09T18:04:50Z")
And remember that The Onion is also a real paper publication based out of Madison Wisconsin. I don’t get to Madison too often, but I’m pretty sure the paper ed. comes out a day before the online ed. So considering the time it takes to print & distribute, the article was definately written before the actual election. I read it as a parody of how identical the candidates are, too. It’s got a whole new level of funny now, though. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2000, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/onion-scoops-election/40404/7 "2000-11-09T18:56:24Z")
Somewhere, the ghost of Erwin Schroedinger is rolling on the floor in laughter. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2000, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/onion-scoops-election/40404/8 "2000-11-10T06:45:05Z")
Gary Trudeau also “scooped” the election with a _Doonesbury_ strip that described the election as a “nail-biter”. But I think the Psychic Satirist Award for this campaign has to go to Al Franken who in _Why, Not Me?_, written months before the campaign started, named Joe Lieberman as his Vice Presidential candidate. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2000, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/onion-scoops-election/40404/9 "2000-11-10T13:47:12Z")
The way I read it, the article in _The Onion_ is wrong. They assume Bush or Gore has won the election, when neither one has yet.