Media Conspiracies Revealed!

February 8, 2002 5:53 AM

Media Conspiracies Revealed! Ever notice unusual references to "creamy thighs," "okra," or the phrase, "it was as if an occult hand had. . . " in your daily newspaper? From The Poynter Foundation website, candid confessions from journalists about how they fight the boredom of writing daily news. It's a conspiracy, all right--"right down the cock."
posted by busbyism (5 comments total)

I am not making this up: One morning in the early 90's, I looked at the Style section of the WashPost, and in the upper right of the front page it read "we aren't wearing any underpants." It made my month.
posted by Fenriss at 6:57 AM on February 8, 2002

Similar games are played in theatre. A daily word or phrase might be picked to be worked into a performance. Playwrights also often put in hidden anagrams, just like reporters.

It would seem the human urge to stick 'easter eggs' into one's work is a strong one. Any other professions out there with unexpected easter eggs?
posted by umberto at 7:00 AM on February 8, 2002

Before the 1998 World Cup the England squad played a similar sort of game with the media, where they tried to work a different Abba song into the interview. Obviously, "The Winner Takes It All" is one of the easier ones. If I remember correctly, the gig was up when one of the players referred to "Rio Fernando". (For non-football fans, his name is actually Rio Ferdinand.)

There was a story in Private Eye only last month that a journalist with The Times made sure his last leader comment spelled out "Fuck you Murdoch" with the first letter of each word. Unfortunately for him, the editor of the paper he was going to spotted it, and sacked him before he even started work there!
posted by salmacis at 7:54 AM on February 8, 2002

Great link! They're going to love this one in the newsroom. Thanks.
posted by ColdChef at 7:58 AM on February 8, 2002

My favourite radio commentary of all time (of a cricket match): "The batsman's holding, the bowler's Willie".
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 5:01 PM on February 8, 2002