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In the Coeur d’Alene Press today, staff writer April Fuhl wrote the newspaper’s traditional faux 
story to celebrate April Fool’s Day. In this instance, the anonymous scribe contended that the “Cur d’Alene City Council” voted unanimously to make Tubbs Hill ”a full-fledged dog park — with no two-legged critters allowed.” Councilman “Woofy” McEvers is quoted. It’s all in fun. Sorta. Less fun, for California Congresswoman and soon-to-be Undersecretary of State Ellen Tauscher (pictured), was a spoof by blogger Halfway To Concord. The blogger said Tauschner had “shocked national and international diplomacy and fashion circles today when she announced she would wed Osama bin-Laden in a wedding to be held at a secret location in Nairobi this June.” And continued here. Tauschner’s office responded with this: “The item on Ellen Tauscher is offensive, unacceptable and libelous. Worse, it’s not even funny. Please remove it at once.”
Question: What do you think? When does a written spoof on April Fool’s Day cross the line?
D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.
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JeanieSpokane on April 01 at 10:00 a.m.
[I wrote this at Community Comment as well] When I was 18 and a senior in high school at Lewis & Clark in 1967, our school newspaper came out on April Fool’s Day and the headline was that the government had just lowered the draft age to 17. We were smack in the middle of the Viet Nam War. I tell you what – there was not one single person in my senior class that thought that was funny at all.
Cindy_H on April 01 at 1:52 p.m.
“When does a written spoof on April Fool’s Day cross the line?”
When it’s not funny. Like the Press article.