The Onion Fills Homepage With All 21 Times It Recycled Same Shooting Story
Photo 110319227 © Skypixel | Dreamstime.com
How many times must a news story be “breaking” until it becomes apparent that it’s transitioning into a routine?
It’s a sad week for America, and the more awful truth is that the same event has been looping for years, with only the names and locations changed. Usually steeped in parody, The Onion brings the nation’s pattern of mass shootings to light. For eight years now, it’s been republishing the same headline in the wake of a gun violence attack: ‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.
The Robb Elementary School shooting on Tuesday—which killed 19 children and two teachers, and wounded 17 other people—continued this streak and marked the 21st time the satirical news site has run the same story.
The last time the website repeated this piece was only a little over a week ago, on May 16, in light of the supermarket shooting in Buffalo, New York.
This is the 21st time The Onion has published a similar satirical article under this headline since 2014. Second time this month.https://t.co/bLQMxnADrr
— Dylan McLemore (@voiceofD) May 25, 2022
In an unusually poignant move, The Onion filled its homepage with all 21 times it featured the one-paragraph story, which, through the years, has retained the headline and pretty much the same copy originally penned by former Onion writer and editor Jason Roeder in 2014. Each breaking piece is “refreshed” with a new main photo and a tweak in some of the details.
A look at @TheOnion’s homepage right now. pic.twitter.com/rTgdKx72gL
— B.W. Carlin (@BaileyCarlin) May 25, 2022
One consistency is that the story always cites a fictional resident who claims there’s no way of stopping the attacks. “It’s a shame, but what can we do?” this non-existent character would remark, echoing the exhaustion of the general public.
On Twitter, The Onion reiterated this cycle of gun violence with a Twitter thread sharing every article that has used the same headline.
‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens https://t.co/tVTDUEIhbd pic.twitter.com/k2uOaZwYEK
— The Onion (@TheOnion) May 25, 2022
[via Ad Age and NPR, cover photo 110319227 © Skypixel | Dreamstime.com]
