The Onion sparks ire with image of plane, building

AP Graphics

(AP) CHICAGO - The satirical newspaper The Onion is attracting some public ire for an image that shows an airliner about to crash into Chicago's Willis Tower, the tallest building in the country.

The image, in a video on The Onion's website showcasing its stories, shows an airplane emblazoned with the company name Sears flying toward the iconic black skyscraper, which for decades was named Sears Tower and headquarters to the retail chain. A narrator intones, "Sears extremists fly a plane into Willis Tower."

The image generated more than 3,200 responses on The Onion's Facebook page by Friday evening, many denouncing the use of an image reminiscent of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City.

In response to questions about the criticism and using such an image, The Onion marketing director Grant Jones stuck with the newspaper's tone. He wrote in an email that, "9-11 must never be the fodder for jokes. Perhaps you didn't see the news that humor died after 9-11."

Jones called the blurb "a very important story," then added: "We're surprised other major news sources are not giving it the coverage it deserves."

People in New York weren't taking the image as lightly.

"That's not funny," said Christina Lopez, 36, who was living on New York's Long Island on Sept. 11, 2001. She said she can't foresee a time when such a gag would be appropriate, adding: "It's not OK. Ever."

Bill Hylen, a Philadelphian who was visiting lower Manhattan on Friday, also didn't find the image amusing. The 45-year-old said there may be a time when a lighthearted allusion to 9/11 won't hit such a nerve in the nation, but "it's not coming up any time soon."

It isn't the first time The Onion has generated angst with its satire.

Last September, Washington Capitol Police released a statement refuting tweets and an article claiming members of Congress had taken a group of school children hostage. It included a doctored picture of Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner holding a gun to a child's head.

The story came a day after the FBI arrested a man accused of planning to bomb the Pentagon and the Capitol with explosive-filled model airplanes.

The Chicago-based publication was founded in 1988 by two students in Madison from the University of Wisconsin. Starting as a local college newspaper, it became a national comedy institution and went online in 1996, and has since developed a television news parody. The publication is distributed weekly in cities, but it has also embraced Twitter and on has an app for the iPad and other tablets.

The Onion's editorial staff has been based in New York City with other offices in Madison, Wis., but is relocating to Chicago.

[SryanP]

Anyone who is an active watcher of The Onion knows what it is about so it isn't surprising that something of this nature came up. Now that you (sensitive) people know what The Onion is, I advise you don't listen to it anymore if you plan on having hurt feelings.
However for us that have moved on and like satirical humor, we will lean back in our chairs and have ourselves a hearty chuckle.

[BWB2020]

@routan1

"BWB, The myth that the CIA working for the rich Republicans pulled off the 9/11 attacks can be exploded by focusing on one problem with that hypothesis; that these same rich guys would fly a couple of planes into the very buildings that was so important to their economic empire. Don't you suppose that they'd be much more likely to crash these planes into a football stadium or some comparable target that wouldn't cost them fifty-gazillion dollars?"...

You make a few mistaken assumptions. First, one should not assume that all corrupt businesses are loyal to each other, the Goldman Sachs-AIG-BoA debacle should be enough proof that the sharks will bite each other when the pickings of small fish get slim.

Second you assume that the businesses who profited from the invasion and occupation of two countries, like Halliburton (Xie) for example, cares one whit about two buildings that were insured by Lloyd's of London, or the people working inside.

Third, You mistakenly assume that all rich GOP-ers are the only ones controlling, and benefiting from the CIA's mercenary actions, Saudi Arabia, the country the hijackers came from, profits greatly by having it's neighbours destabilized, as does Israel, and I doubt they are rank-and-file GOP-ers.

Fourthly, you make the incorrect assumption that the WTC was somehow important to their economic empire, something proven incorrect by the very fact that none of them were harmed economically by the buildings' destruction.

I will give you credit, however, for not taking the "bagger denial route", by trying to ignore, or deny the publicly known and documented fact that Al-Qaeda (translation, "the database")was formed, organized, funded, trained and armed by the CIA.

The other posters who responded to my original post, namely "Rafterman11", and "kkltr76" are obviously unable to comprehend the facts, thus the joke is on them.

[doubleecho-2009]

If you don't appreciate the humour in the Onion, then just don't pay attention! Why do Americans have to be so "whiny" about everything that offends them?

[lillyhorton]

I am offended by many things in society. Things like women who wear their shorts up to their crack or their top to the point of displaying their nipples. Exer-resizing in their underwear and bra at the gym. I am offended by people on social security for learning disabilities yet they are fully capable of working at jobs like custodial or laundry. I am offended by multi generational welfare seekers. Some people are offended by inter racial couples, Loud black women, people in the US here illegally or women who wear bikinis when really they shouldn't. My point is we all are offended by something. Everything I have mentioned are facts of life. The onion was trying to be funny. A non-real situation. Aren't their better things to be irritated with? People who drive slow so they can text a message to their friends? Drunk drivers? Rising cost of food in the name of bad crops this year even though crops haven't been pulled to know the extent of the damage? An impending war with Iran because we don't want isreal to be nuked even though they deserve it. Our involvement with selling guns to gorillas in Syria?

[jimatmadison]

OUR LONG NATIONAL NIGHTMARE OF PEACE AND PROSPERITY IS FINALLY OVER!

(The Onion headline announcing the inauguration of George W Bush.)

Still the truest, most prophetic headline in history.

[hypnotoad72]

*zing*

[hypnotoad72]

Actually,

http://www.realitybase.org/journal/2009/3/10/the-american-dream-died-in-february-1973.html

[jimatmadison]

Hogan's Heroes ran twenty years after the deadliest war in our history, and depicted a comical POW camp in Nazi Germany.

Completely tasteless on the face of things, but it was actually a funny, long-running show.

I wouldn't have done what The Onion did. Not yet. But I'm not terribly offended, either.

[hypnotoad72]

That's a good point - it is tasteless and unfunny, I had no idea it was popular, but it is a precedent... I still prefer such reflections having some meat to them; the farce Hogan's Heroes tried to be rarely got through... but it's been a while since I saw the show...

[BWB2020]

9/11 itself was a joke.

The CIA trains, funds, organizes and arms some Saudi criminals, gives them flying lessons in the US, turns them loose on the WTC, then Bush invades Afghanistan.

Then Iraq.

That was even funnier than the Onion.

The punch line being there are still suckers who believe there is anything worth "winning" in this whole looney episode, and even funnier that we are capable of "winning" it.

[Rafterman11]

Bush wasn't behind 9/11, pi$$ed off Muslims were. Enough with this conspiracy nonsense.

9/11, birth certificates, the moon landing, UFO's, JFK - nothing defines gullibility and stupidity more than conspiracy theories. Get a life.

[hypnotoad72]

Care to provide any proof to those claims?

BTW, Iraq was planned - long before 9/11:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4756962/

As such, that adds to the claim that would dispel your claims. The CIA did not engage in any conspiracy.

Granted, Bush didn't care either way:

"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him."
- G.W. Bush, 9/13/01

"I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority."
- G.W. Bush, 3/13/02




SIX MONTHS to the day he said he would stop at nothing he would brush OBL off, in favor of what seemed to be a continuation of a blood feud on his part...

[matt6052]

"Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?"

--Animal House, 1978



Anyone know of any other Pearl Harbor jokes?

[Jaylah54200]

I agree that it wasn't in the best of taste.

But The Onion is known for being a satirical publication. You never have to go beyond just looking at the front page to know that.

If it offends you, don't read it. Duhhhhhhhhhhhh.

[aintfakin]

fundamentalists suck