The Onion asked to peel presidential seal from site

Globe and Mail ^ | October 26, 2005

[YouPosting2Me]

"You mean, like a cake? ;-)"

Parfait... everybody loves Parfait.... best damn thing on the planet!

[GraniteStateConservative]

I believe that The Onion requested that not even a link to their site be put up on FR in threads and JimRob complied.

Can this be confirmed?

[Jim Robinson]

yup

[GraniteStateConservative]

That's weird. Did they offer any explanation, or was it just that they hated us and didn't want the site to get any benefit that might come from posting a mere link with no excerpt?

[Androcles]

Most bizarre! Thanks for the info folks.

[Jim Robinson]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/985865/posts

[FishFace222]

"Can this be confirmed?"

...and did they make the same request to DUmmies?

[GraniteStateConservative]

Is it this section?

"In addition, you may not use the material in any other manner whatsoever."

I didn't see any explicit reference to linking.

[michigander]

Bayback is a bitch eh?

[Jim Robinson]

I don't see any good reason to link them.

[michigander]

Bayback is a bitch eh?

Bayback Payback is a bitch eh?

[Starter]

Actually, I can see how the White House might be concerned on this. There are a lot of gullible leaders out there in the world who might think that something in the Onion is actual fact. Remember this?

Congress Threatens To Leave D.C. Unless New Capitol Is Built

The Chinese thought that one was a real story and reported it in their media. Or this?

John Kerry relied on info from the ONION for his voter irregularities

Some of them leaders are pretty durn stupid .

BTW: I heard one of the folks from the Onion on the radio this morning and he didn't seem terribly concerned with the White House's request.

[Bulwark]

That said, they have gotten a lot more anti-Bush and a lot less funny in recent months. I noticed it happened about when they redid their site - I wonder if there was a change in management.

It's called spoofing the guy in charge. They did the same thing when Clinton was in office.

[EveningStar]

I am a Republican, but not a 'tight-assed, humorless jerk.'

Oh, please. I have a South Park pinglist. FWIW, I too think the administration is overreacting. I think they should have let this one pass. However, I did wish to point out that the Onion is not without an agenda.

[EveningStar]

I think "you may not use the material in any other manner whatsoever" includes linking.

[EveningStar]

That was then. This is now.

The Onion forbade any use by FR whatsoever. I can fully understand them not wanting the articles posted in their entirety. In fact, I fully agree. I try to excerpt all articles I post, regardless of the source. For instance, notice that this article contains only the first paragraph. I can also understand where they might want to forbid excerpting too. Some folks get carried away with their excerpting and excerpt too much. I think you should post a teaser and force the person to go the other site for the meat of the article.

However, the Onion banned any use whatsoever. They could get a lot of hits by allowing links only. This tells me that they dislike conservatives and feel they can do without them.

Now, I know that some people are going to want to respond, "Maybe they don't have a problem with conservatives in general. Maybe they just don't like FR." To that I would respond that FR has a far larger membership than other conservative boards. Perhaps, they aren't worried about the smaller boards.

[Constitution Day]

I was quoting drew's #12 up thread.

I'm aware you have a SP pinglist... I'm on it! :)

I occasionally read the Onion now, although I used to read it often.
Their agenda should be obvious to even the casual reader.