When life becomes an Onion article, what does The Onion become? The original fake news site parodies major media organisations with such precision that users were incredulously sharing its headlines way before the post-truth era of the Trump presidency took hold. America's Finest News Source has always moved in parallel with the culture it lampoons—but now that culture is weirder and darker than ever before. 
 
 The site's managing editor, Marnie Shure, is well aware. Shure oversees a tightknit team of in-house writers and editors who spend painstaking hours sitting in a Chicago office crafting the articles your confused uncle reads as fact and your cool cousin reads as hilarious social commentary. She's spent most of her career at The Onion; she was writing there before Trump, and hopes to continue doing so when he's gone. But even for pretend journalists, there is a heightened sense of duty in times like this. 
 
 "I think [the Presidency] makes what we do feel important, and it makes you feel like you want to do more than just see it as work," she says. "There is a sense of unrest in America right now, which I think is reflected in the articles we write." 
 
 Fake news gets a bad rap these days, but The Onion's misinformation has a noble purpose. Freed from the facts, Onion articles are able to cuttingly—and God, the writing is sharp—tell the truth about contemporary American life. There's a fine art to Onion articles; the best of the site's work has always reached a little further than Weekend Update-style news. Its editorial staff, who come from a variety of backgrounds and who Shure says are split "about 50/50" by gender, work anonymously and collaboratively to create wildly creative and sometimes totally absurd work ( Report: White House Officials Deliberately Hid FDR's Mechanical Spider Legs From Public), but more commonly straight-faced satire that finds inspiration in the social anxieties and neuroses of ordinary people: Nation Unsure How to Describe Mark , Report: Unemployment High Because People Keep Blowing Their Job Interviews. 
 
 In 2017, comedy rarely provides relief from world events. Which is why Onion readers have eagerly embraced the wackiness of its clickbait companion Clickhole: a site making fun of websites that are distracting, that in itself provides a fun and smart distraction. 
 
 But while it must be tempting for such a gifted writing team to go totally surreal and ignore the day-to-day horrors of American politics altogether, The Onion has not done this. If anything, it has stepped up its political "coverage". Like the major news organisations it mirrors, its website has a dedicated Trump section. "We try to keep a close eye on the news cycle to make the determination about what is warranting a comment," says Shure. "That is a tough call to make, but we usually end up erring on the side of, let's publish something, if we can find a really true comment on it." 
 
 When the world begins to resemble an Onion article, an Onion article may as well start resembling the world. Some of the site's more reactionary news articles (Antifa Organizers Announce Plans To Disrupt Neo-Nazi Rally Or Whatever Else Going On, Trump Pours Himself Glass Of Chocolate Syrup On Rocks To Unwind After Stressful Day) feel cheaper than the "Area Man" jokes The Onion is best known for. While evergreen Onion stuff can take weeks to produce and therefore benefits from the editorial staff's notoriously brutal editing process (" a lot gets left on the cutting room floor"), topical stories are churned out quickly to keep pace with the news cycle. There is plenty to talk about. 
 
 Then there's the question of who you're talking to. The Onion could never be labelled politically neutral, although Shure says its writers would bristle at the publication being labelled a "liberal rag". It has however always existed for insiders: comedy nerds and people who get it, and probably feel pretty smug about that. For every keyed-in Onion fan there must logically be someone who will take it literally. It's not like there's any real harm in random internet users momentarily believing an Onion premise, but the site's natural exclusivity feels representative of America's deepening social and political divides. 
 
 Shure says that's something they are trying to fix. "I think we aim to write things that are fundamentally and universally true … we're not catering to a political affiliation or demographic. It's intended to be a really broad comment. In fact, especially over the last year of covering the election, we had plenty to say about and perhaps even against both parties. You know, not everyone is going to read us, but we wanna make sure that anyone can come to the table." 
 
 In other words, it's no longer just midwest Area Man who appears in The Onion. "We recently published an article called Man in Center of Political Spectrum Convinced he is Less Obnoxious and I think that is very much [pointing] to a liberal mindset," she says. "I think right now there is the idea that the way to combat Trump is with decorum and respect, and ideological consistency, and I'm not so sure that is the case. It's not proven to work against him, and the more we can write to that sense, the more people we will appeal to across the spectrum." 
 
 You can have faith that this strategy will work out, too, because the writers are committed to medium above message. They want the jokes to be good. Extremely funny as well as prescient. "As long as the people are making a joke that seems true to you, even if they are spearing you, you can be like—yeah, fair enough, I get it." 
 
 Unlike many of the news companies it parodies, The Onion has proved dynamic enough to change with the times. It is impressive how, throughout its savvy transition from niche print publication for college students to global digital behemoth, it has retained not only relevance but coolness and cultural prestige. It's also valued at more than $200 million. A pessimist might predict the Onion bit of The Onion dying altogether as the internet changes shape and the Clickhole aesthetic of videos, quizzes and slideshows completely takes over. Then again, much of The Onion's content is so enduringly relevant that it's difficult to picture that happening. 
 
 One of the articles of which Shure says The Onion team is most proud will be well-known to most people who have scrolled through any part of the internet. "In the wake of shooting tragedies in the US, we always republish the same story: 'No Way To Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens," says Shure. 
 
 "We wrote it for one particular attack, and subsequently it has run for many others with just the date changed. By re-running the same commentary it strengthens the original commentary tenfold each time. I'm proud to work alongside the people who saw the potential in that, and who were able to send out that message and make it resonate. In the wake of these really terrible things, we have this comment that really holds up." 
 
 Like the best of The Onion, the article proves you can write fake news without lying. 
 
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 Marnie Shure appeared at Sydney's Antidote festival over the weekend. ||||| "Unfortunately an incorrect item was released on our website on Friday which included a fake opinion poll on popularity rate of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and US President Barack Obama. The news item was extracted from the Satirical Magazine, The Onion, by mistake and it was taken down from our outlook in less two hours," Editor-in-chief of FNA's English Service said. 
 
 
 
 "We offer our formal apologies for that mistake," he added. 
 
 
 
 "FNA makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of its reports, however very occasionally mistakes do happen," he said. 
 
 
 
 "Although it does not justify our mistake, we do believe that if a free opinion poll is conducted in the US, a majority of Americans would prefer anyone outside the US political system to President Barack Obama and American statesmen," he added. 
 
 
 
 Active and well-known media occasionally make mistakes, and no media is an exception to this rule. 
 
 
 
 Also, It's not the first time a news outlet has been duped by The Onion. 
 
 
 
 On April 25, 2011, The New York Times admitted they made the mistake of treating a fake creation from The Onion as something legitimate. 
 
 
 
 A week earlier the Times printed an article documenting the history of the squeaky-clean teen magazine Tiger Beat, and included a retrospective of past magazine covers. Unfortunately (or humorously depending on one's perspective), in the collection they also included a parody cover created by The Onion, which featured President Obama. 
 
 
 
 In 2002, the Beijing Evening News, one of the Chinese capital's biggest newspapers, picked up a story from The Onion that claimed members of Congress were threatening to leave Washington unless the building underwent a makeover that included more bathrooms and a retractable dome. 
 
 
 
 Also, in February, Rep. John Fleming (R-La.), deleted a Facebook post in which he linked to an Onion article about Planned Parenthood that he did not realize was satirical. 
 
 
 
 All media, at least those you know like the BBC, CNN, etc., have had many goofs. During a report on the ongoing conflict in Syria, the BBC used an image of Iraq alleging that the image was taken after a massacre in Hula in Syria. 
 
 
 
 According to The Telegraph, the image - which shows of Iraqi child running over rows of bodies found in desert - was captured in 2003. 
 
 
 
 The photographer who caught the image in 2003, Marco Di Lauro, said he was shocked that a press institution like BBC did not check their sources and published such an image. 
 
 
 
 The time ITV also presented clips from Arma II as real-life footage of IRA soldiers shooting down a British Helicopter. 
 
 
 
 The BBC has made a series of embarrassing blunders over the years. Here is a selection cited by the Telegraph on December 6, 2010. 
 
 
 
 "The weather finger" 
 
 
 
 Tomasz Schafernaker, a BBC weather presenter, was caught making a rude gesture on-air, forcing the BBC and the Met Office to issue apologies. He was caught live on air making the obscene gesture just before the 11am bulletin in August, 2010 after news presenter Simon McCoy made a lighthearted remark. The camera cut to Schafernaker who, not realizing he was now being broadcast live, was clearly seen raising his middle finger to McCoy in a well-understood gesture. Instantly realizing his mistake, Schafernaker moved his hand to his face to disguise it. 
 
 
 
 "F------ trumpet." 
 
 
 
 The BBC was forced to apologize after a member of staff delivered a four-letter tirade without realizing he was being broadcast live on Radio 5 Live. Thousands of listeners heard the unnamed producer swearing at a jazz music recording. He was heard to say "f****** trumpet" before adding: ""It drives you mad that f****** Stanley Clarke." The BBC apologized. 
 
 
 
 Caught in the "Today show duck house". 
 
 
 
 Sir Peter Viggers's £1,645 duck house, first disclosed by The Daily Telegraph, provoked Today show host Evan Davis to fall into fits of the giggles. "Evan, just shush... it's serious stuff," co-presenter Sarah Montague, said all the time trying not to laugh herself. 
 
 
 
 
 
 "Leg over". 
 
 
 
 The 'Leg Over' has become a commentary classic since 1991. Commentating on a Test match between England and the West Indies, Test Match Special legends Brian Johnston and Jonathan Agnew were undone by what has been described as the most famous fit of giggles in broadcasting history. Johnston was describing a dismissal in which Ian Botham's inner thigh had brushed his stumps, dislodging a bail. "He just didn't quite get his leg over," Agnew added. Johnston then erupted in snorts, whimpers, sneezes and, finally, uncontrollable laughter. Listeners were similarly afflicted; motorists had to pull on to the hard shoulder to wipe away the tears. 
 
 
 
 "Nicky Campbell and west Kent Hunt" 
 
 
 
 The BBC presenter Radio 5 Live made a memorable slip-up in 2009 when he introduced the "master of the west Kent hunt". He introduced Georgie Worsley as the master of the Old Surrey, Burstow and West ----. 
 
 
 
 "Nicky Campbell and hunting mark II" 
 
 
 
 The presenter then shocked listeners in April by accidentally swearing after a slip of the tongue during his breakfast show. Campbell introduced a Countryside Alliance guest on his breakfast show and said he was "pro ----ing". What he had meant to say was that Tim Bonner, the pressure group's head of media, was pro-hunting.
– With its 1,000th issue (more or less) coming out this week, the Onion isn't just content to be America's top satirical newspaper: It wants a Pulitzer. It's not fussy at all about which Pulitzer—editors have submitted articles to the Pulitzer Board in categories like commentary and public service in the past—but the Onion's editors think its day has finally come, for real this time. “We’re spending all our capital on this,” the Onion's head writer, Seth Reiss, tells the New York Times of the paper's brand-new Pulitzer-focused multimedia campaign. To make its Pulitzer dreams come true, the Onion has enlisted the completely independent and not at all biased nonprofit group Americans for Fairness in Awarding Journalism Prizes, which declares: “Simply put, it’s time for the Pulitzer Board to stop the bias, stop the ignorance, and stop the neglect.” The Onion also claims such diverse supporters as Arianna Huffington (for real) and the president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili (maybe not so real). And there's an online petition, if you care to add your voice to the cause.