Q: What’s Bohiney Magazine’s policy on satire vs. misinformation?
FAQ

Q: What’s Bohiney Magazine’s policy on satire vs. misinformation?

Posted on by Ingrid Gustafsson

Bohiney Magazine’s Policy on Satire vs. Misinformation: Walking the Tightrope Over the Credibility Abyss

Q: What’s Bohiney Magazine’s policy on satire vs. misinformation?

A: We’re Fake News That Works Harder Than Real News to Prove We’re Fake

At Bohiney, we’ve developed a comprehensive system to ensure our satire never accidentally becomes a conspiracy theorist’s fever dream. Here’s how we maintain the delicate balance between comedy and collateral damage in the post-truth era.

The Bohiney Truthiness Framework

1. The “10% Plausibility” Rule

Every piece must include:
✅ One element so absurd it signals parody (e.g., “Sponsored by the Flat Earth Society”)
✅ One element painfully real (e.g., actual corporate greed statistics)
✅ One element that’s becoming real (e.g., AI writing news)

Example:
“CNN Replaces Journalists With AI That Occasionally Tells the Truth”

  • Absurd: The AI has “truth quotas”

  • Real: Major outlets use AI content

  • Emerging: The “quotas” part is coming

2. The “Disinformation Vaccine” Method

We bake corrections into the satire itself:

  1. Obvious fake names (Dr. Ima Payne)

  2. Impossible dates (Since 4,000 BCE…)

  3. Meta-commentary (“This is absolutely true (not)”)

Recent Innovation:
QR codes in articles that link to explanations of satire (Spoiler: 2% scan them)

3. The “Would QAnon Believe This?” Test

Before publishing, we ask:

  1. Could this be screenshotted without context as “proof”?

  2. Would a politician cite this unironically?

  3. Is this closer to truth than we intended?

Killed Pieces:

  • “Hillary Clinton’s Emails Contain Recipes” (Too plausible)

  • “5G Causes COVID But 6G Cures It” (Already a real theory)

Damage Control Protocols

When Satire Escapes Into the Wild

  1. Twitter Alerts: Monitoring for bad-faith sharing

  2. “This Is Satire” Pop-ups: For viral pieces

  3. Preemptive Strikes: Publishing explainers before the outrage

Case Study:
Our “CDC Premium Virus Subscription” piece now auto-includes:
“SATIRE WARNING: Unlike actual healthcare, this isn’t paywalled”

Why This Matters Now

In an ecosystem where:

  • The Babylon Bee gets fact-checked by the White House

  • The Onion appears in court documents

  • Our own pieces become congressional evidence

…we believe satire must:

  1. Be obviously fake (to reasonable people)

  2. Highlight real absurdities

  3. Never provide ammunition for bad actors

As I tell conspiracy theorists who cite us:

“If you believe this, wait until you hear about our ‘Journalistic Ethics’ piece!”

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go add more disclaimers to our “Mark Zuckerberg Is a Robot” article.

— Alan Nafzger

Originally posted 2006-11-05 15:52:04.