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April 5, 2008

Viewers mistake The Onion’s ‘rolling news’ for real

By paulmcnally

Fourteen years after The Day Today prompted many a British newsreader to cringe, American satirical newspaper The Onion has taken its turn to sending up rolling news.

The Onion News Network (ONN) has been broadcast as a video stream on the paper’s website since last year. And it’s so realistic that a number of viewers have mistaken the spoof stories for real news coverage.

Today’s Guardian Guide talks to ONN producer Will Graham. “Our biggest inspiration was not other comedy. It was the news itself – the sheer ridiculousness of it,” he says.

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