Spinning for the Spin Doctors

Meeting at 4 am at the Empire State Building, the first wave of distribution was intended for morning show television producers on the way to work. When I arrived, none of the 20 or so people gathered had a clue what they would be distributing; then organizers arrived with a carload of fake “special editions” of the New York Post and basic instructions for what to do. They were taken to a variety of studios and media offices that are located in the area, such as Good Morning America, as well as the New York Daily News and the Associated Press. Even New York City is pretty quiet that time of morning — the idea was to get the newspaper into the hands of people who would be covering the Climate Change Summit that was warming up at the United Nations. The contents of the Yes Men’s edition of the Post were factual and researched; it was not actually a parody in the true sense but impostering, in  the Yes Men tradition. In other words, an authentic fake, with a message. Photo by Eric Francis / Planet Waves.
В Photo by Eric Francis / Planet Waves.

Meeting at 4 am at the Empire State Building, the first wave of distribution was intended for morning show television producers on the way to work. When I arrived, none of the 20 or so people gathered had a clue what they would be distributing; then organizers arrived with a carload of fake “special editions” of the New York Post and basic instructions for what to do. They were taken to a variety of studios and media offices that are located in the area, such as Good Morning America, as well as the New York Daily News and the Associated Press. Even New York City is pretty quiet that time of morning — the idea was to get the newspaper into the hands of people who would be covering the Climate Change Summit that was warming up at the United Nations. The contents of the Yes Men’s edition of the Post were factual and researched; it was not actually a parody in the true sense but impostering, in the Yes Men tradition. In other words, an authentic fake, with a message.

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