Writers from the satirical newspaper "The Onion" shared the year's most wacky and wonderful stories with journalists at the National Press Club Thursday night. And marveled at the reading public.
"People seem to have lost their bull---- detectors," said writer Dave Kornfeld. "We discovered that the best and cheapest way to give the news was not to send reporters out to cover it, but to create it. But people don't really sue us because they'll come off pretty lame."
As real news now sometimes seems made up, "The Onion" has seen it's fake news occasionally picked up as legit. A recent story about a rambling email from President Obama to the American people was posted to real news websites as an actual true story. That's something the paper's writers find bemusing.
"What we do is protected under satire," quipped Seth Reiss. "For the most part, it's fun. But it's fake. It's a joke, people!"
Though the writers argued that the biggest story of the year was, without a doubt, the midterm elections, the audience asked more questions about their coverage of political personalities -- and even celebrities.
And "The Onion" staff, not surprisingly, riffed on that, too.
"I think they can appreciate the humor," said Joe Garden. "We did [a story on] Drew Barrymore and she sent us cookies. That was pretty cool."
