One day before 100 world leaders were due to arrive at the UN for a conference on climate change, the activist prankster group The Yes Men papered New York City with a spoof edition of the city’s favorite tabloid, the New York Post.
The 32-page edition mimicked the Post, from the US flag on the front page to the cartoons to the Page Six celebrity page, with one key twist: The entire paper was devoted to the issue of climate change and the main headline blared, “We’re Screwed.”
“Although the 32-page New York Post is a fake, everything in it is 100 percent true, with all facts carefully checked by a team of editors and climate change experts,” The Yes Men said in a statement.
The actual news came from an official New York City government report prepared by a panel of scientists commissioned by the mayor’s office to determine the potential effects of climate change on the city. That report was released in February (www.nyc.gov/html/om/pdf/2009/NPCC_CRI.pdf), but received very little coverage at the time.
Last November, The Yes Men recruited volunteers to distribute copies of a fake New York Times across the country. This time, the effort was restricted to the Big Apple, with volunteers told to assemble at 4am at assigned locations around the city, including Penn Station. Copies of the spoof were even handed out in front of the Post’s own building at Sixth Avenue and 48th Street. The Yes Men said almost 1 million copies were handed out.
Monday’s spoof was one of 2,500 initiatives taking place in more than 130 countries as a response to the “Global Wake-up Call” on climate change, including a “flash mob” event that drew thousands of demonstrators to the front of Sacre-Coeur church in Paris, holding up beeping alarm clocks and cellphones to tell French President Nicolas Sarkozy and other world leaders that it was time to “wake up” to the threat posed by global warming.
Like last fall’s fake New York Times that proclaimed the Iraq War was over, The Yes Men also prepared an elaborate fake Web site (www.nypost-se.com) for the Post, complete with interactive ads.
The real Post, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, was not amused.
“It’s no surprise that they tried to spoof the New York Post; they figured this time they’d choose a paper people actually love to read. But this is a limp effort. It has none of the wit and insight New Yorkers expect from their favorite paper. The Post will not be hiring any of their headline writers,” the company said in a statement issued by Rubenstein PR.
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