Satire News is Serious Stuff for New Website

The Web's first site devoted to the serious examination of online satire news launched this week. "Check Please!" (http://www.checkplease.humorfeed.com) is a quarterly e-zine exploring issues ranging from satire's role in relation to actual journalism to practical considerations of producing an online satire site. It is intended as a resource for both the online satire and journalism communities.

(PRWEB) August 2, 2004 -- The Web's first site devoted to the serious examination of online satire news launched this week, exposing judgment lapses by mainstream media outlets and exploring the ways in which satire news has become a major player on the Internet.

"Check Please!" (http://www.checkplease.humorfeed.com) is a quarterly e-zine exploring issues ranging from satire's role in relation to actual journalism to practical considerations of producing an online satire site. It is intended as a resource for both the online satire and journalism communities.

"There are hundreds of sites producing sharp, topical, and timely satirical takes on the news," said Check Please! editor E.F. Watley. "Because of the easy way information is passed around on the Internet, satirical stories are often presented as truth, sometimes by major news sites. But it's been a phenomenon that has largely slipped under the radar of the journalism community."

In its first edition, Check Please! boasts, among other features, interviews with the director of the Online Journalism Review at the University of Southern California and the webmaster behind the dihydrogen monoxide scandal which rocked the nation earlier this year. It also has a detailed practical guide to what constitutes fair use and parody for satire site webmasters, offering resources on how to defend against legal intimidation.

"Satire can be a potent form of social commentary," said Watley, "and can provoke strong responses from targets. There are resources you can use to defend yourself, but it's not always easy to understand what those are. We try to put all the information in one place for satirists."

Check Please! is produced in association with HumorFeed.com, a highly selective association of over thirty news satire webmasters which maintains a community link site displaying daily headlines from member sites in a variety of RSS feeds. In the year since its inception, HumorFeed has become the leading satire and humor aggregator on the Web. HumorFeed members contributing to Check Please! include webmasters from well-known satire sites such as The Watley Review, DeadBrain, US Press News, BBspot, and No Apologies! Press.

"We have a phenomenal community behind us," said Watley. "Check Please! is a truly unique resource, and we are all looking forward to establishing this site as the premier voice on satire journalism for the Internet."

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