Activists distributed hundreds of fake “special editions” of The Washington Post on Jan. 16. Here’s who was behind the hoax. (Elyse Samuels /The Washington Post)
By Emily Heil andPaul Farhi January 16, 2019 (washingtonpost.com)
This story has been updated.
Fake editions of The Washington Post claiming that President Trump was leaving office were handed out Wednesday morning at multiple locations in Washington.
The print papers — dated May 1, 2019, and looking strikingly similar to actual copies of The Post — were filled with anti-Trump stories, which also appeared on a website that mimicked the official Post site.
The Post’s PR department released a statement on Twitter: “There are fake print editions of The Washington Post being distributed around downtown DC, and we are aware of a website attempting to mimic The Post’s. They are not Post products, and we are looking into this.”
Late Wednesday morning, a group that describes itself as a “trickster activist collective” called the Yes Men said it produced the bogus newspapers and website — which went offline Wednesday afternoon.
Under the headline “Unpresidented,” the fake newspaper’s lead story said Trump had left a resignation message on a napkin in the Oval Office and left Washington for Yalta, the Crimean resort that was the site of a meeting of Allied leaders during World War II.
The real print edition of today’s Washington Post is on the left; on the right is a fake edition of The Washington Post. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)
The false story also reported that his abrupt departure was prompted by “massive women-led protests” around the country, suggesting that the stunt was a promotion for a planned women’s march on Saturday.
Jacques Servin, who uses the pseudonym Andy Bichlbaum, said he is one of the founders of the Yes Men and that the paper was intended to offer the “grass-roots movement” ideas for how to support the impeachment of Trump. “The idea was a newspaper from the future and how we got there — like a road map for activists,” he said.
The print and digital newspapers cost about $40,000, Servin said, adding that $36,000 was raised from the organization’s mailing list. The group printed 25,000 copies, and he estimated 10,000 of the papers were distributed.
He said the group — which is a collaboration between Servin and others, including author-activists Onnesha Roychoudhuri and L.A. Kauffman — practices “clowny activism.” Several documentarieschronicle the collective’s pranks.
It put together a similarly fake copy of the New York Times in 2008. That fake edition, which came out after the election of President Barack Obama, had stories depicting liberal activists putting pressure on the new administration. For more than 20 years they have pretended to represent official groups, such as the World Trade Organization and U.S. Chamber of Commerce, at phony news conferences.
The fake edition’s slogan reads “Democracy Awakens in Action,” instead of “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)
The stunt involving the fake Washington Post newspapers also included two emails sent out Wednesday morning designed to look like they came from a Post account. The first announced the fake news of Trump’s departure and the second was labeled as an “errata,” correcting the first.
Copies of the bogus papers were handed out at locations around Washington, including outside the White House and Union Station.
The liberal activist group Code Pink posted a video on Facebook of the organization’s founder, Medea Benjamin, passing out copies at what appears to be a Capitol Hill office building.
In the video, Benjamin tells people, “The crisis is over — Trump has left the White House.” Later, she adds, “You got to believe in The Washington Post.”
Benjamin said in an e-mail that Code Pink, which has become well known in Washington for staging protests that disrupt congressional hearings and other official proceedings, helped to distribute the fake newspapers.
The liberal group MoveOn, which some on social media suspected of being behind the fake paper, tweeted that it was not responsible. “While we love the headline, we didn’t produce today’s satirical Washington Post,” it said.6
Emily HeilEmily Heil is the co-author of the Reliable Source and previously helped pen the In the Loop column with Al Kamen. Follow
Paul FarhiPaul Farhi is The Washington Post’s media reporter. He started at The Post in 1988 and has been a financial reporter, a political reporter and a Style reporter. Follow
