The power of fake news.

• Author: St. John, Warren
• Position: National

Midway through The Daily Show's coverage of the September 30 presidential debate, the host, Jon Stewart, called on his "correspondents in the field for some in-depth analysis.

"Ed, how are the Kerry people feeling?"

"Ecstatic, Jon," came the reply. "Kerry's people couldn't be happier. Their candidate went up against a sitting war President who's never lost a debate and held his own." "OK," said Stewart. "And Rob, what's the mood at the Bush camp?"

"Triumph, Jon," the correspondent said. "Their man faced off against John Kerry, a golden-tongued virtuoso of words and captain of the Yale debate team. He's been honing his oratorical skills since the age of 3, and the way they see it, by not allowing himself to be reduced to tears, the President was the big winner tonight."

This exchange was a clever takeoff on both the shallowness of campaign spin and of the news media's capacity for buying into that spin. It ran on Comedy Central while the real spin doctors were toiling away on other networks.

"Fake news" is the comedy catchphrase of the moment, and it doesn't apply just to The Daily Show. HBO's Ali G uses a talk-show format to mock politicians who are unaware that the whole show is a gag, while humorist Andy Borowitz files fake stories in perfect newspaper prose on BorowitzReport.com. The Onion, a phony newspaper, has a growing readership, and the bogus "Weekend Update" is a perennial favorite on Saturday Night Live.

GOING MAINSTREAM

The current boom in fake news has even prompted some mainstream news outlets to include news satire in their real news programming. ABC's Primetime Live now closes with a two-minute musical rendition of satirical headlines. Mo Rocca, formerly of The Daily Show, played a wisecracking on-air correspondent on CNN's Larry King Live during the political conventions. And Borowitz, a regular on CNN, appears alongside legal experts on Court TV.

"I spent an hour on Court TV talking about the [Scott and Laci] Peterson case, and I don't know anything about the Peterson case," says Borowitz. "It's perfectly appropriate on mainstream news shows now to have a satirist in the mix."

Most satirists say the popularity of fake news reflects a polarized electorate that suspects the media of doing the other side's bidding, coupled with recent high-profile journalistic scandals such as reporters'...