Onion News Network
The Onion
News parody is nothing new in electronic media. The irreverent “Weekend Update” has been a staple of Saturday Night Live since its debut in 1975, and mock news is the lifeblood of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s Comedy Central shows. But only Onion News Network, a web offshoot of the satirical tabloid The Onion, does fake news — specifically, fake cable news — so deftly that viewers may find themselves doing a double take. With anchors and sets and overblown graphics that could easily be CNN’s or Fox News Channel’s, ONN’s deadpan reports inform us that Diebold, the controversial voting machine manufacturer, has accidentally leaked the 2008 election results two months early and that Presidential candidate John McCain has pledged to cut $50 million from the federal budget by eliminating the Secret Service and defending himself with his bare fists. The jokes are sustained with realistic interviews and shrewdly edited sound bites from real newsmakers. For providing ersatz news that has a worrisome ring of truth, Onion News Network receives a Peabody Award.
PRIMARY PRODUCTION CREDITS
Executive producer/director: Will Graham. Producer: Marc Lieberman. Head writer: Carol Kolb. Co-producer: Claudina DelGuidice. Line producer: Matt Morrison. Segment directors: Judy Adler, Lang Fisher, Dan Mirk. Associate producer: Elizabeth Koe. Art director: Jessica Petruccelli. Locations coordinator: Chris Kelly. Casting directors: Cody Beke, Lang Fisher. Production coordinator: Maxwell Frey. Director of photography: Chris Cannucciari. Lighting director: Robert Woolsey. Editor: Judy Adler. Graphic designers: Chris Ervine, JJ Shebasta. Post production coordinator: Benjamin Moses Smith. Footage coordinator: Todd Bieber. Staff writers: Jack Kukoda, Dan Mirk, Sam West. Writers’ Group: Lang Fisher, Chris Kelly, Geoff Haggerty, Sam Kemmis, Mike Simses, Chris Sartinsky, Michael Pielocik, Alexander Blechman.