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Fake New York Times announces 'Iraq War ends'


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It's all the news that's fake to print. A bogus "edition" of The New York Times hit city streets Wednesday, with a look into a fantasy future filled with phony headlines taking aim at the paper and the Bush administration.

 

The familiar Times motto was altered to read "All The News We Hope To Print." An enthusiastic man was hawking the paper on W. 33rd St., just a few blocks south of the Times headquarters, to passing commuters.

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"Very special edition, New York Times!" he shouted. The folks responsible for the prank paper said the stunt was six months in the making, with 1.2 million copies printed.

 

"IRAQ WAR ENDS," read the lead story headline, while other pieces included an apology from Condoleezza Rice for lies about WMDs and the indictment of President Bush for high treason.

 

The editorial page included an apology for the paper's support of the war and columnist Thomas Friedman's "resignation" for doing the same.

 

"To err is human, but to print, re-print, and re-reprint error-mad humans like me is a criminally moronic editorial policy," the faux Friedman wrote.

 

For those who missed the joke, the realistic-looking paper was dated July 9, 2009, and came with a weather forecast calling for "recent gloom passing ... strong leftward winds."

 

The fake paper also misspelled Secretary of State Rice's first name.

 

"In this edition, did the New York Knicks finally win the championship?" joked John Lynch, 38, of Staten Island, after getting a copy.

 

Some people were taken in by the headline, believing the war was over. "I feel like I've got mud on my face," said Sam Johnson, 35, a former Marine and Iraq veteran. "This looks like the real thing."

 

The Web site Gawker.com reported the bogus 14-page paper was the work of The Yes Men, a liberal prank group. The people handing out the paper from vans around Manhattan were coy about their identity.

 

A Times spokeswoman said the paper was investigating its origins.

 

"This is obviously fake issue of the Times," spokeswoman Catherine Mathis said. "We are in the process of finding out more about it."

 

By LARRY McSHANE

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

November 12th 2008

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