Canadian Satirist's Fictional Quote About OWS Taken Seriously By Some In GOP

From NY Times

By: Malia Wollan & Robert Mackey

Mark Schatzker, a Canadian satirist, told The Lede on Wednesday that it was "a huge surprise" to him to learn that opponents of the Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States, including Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, have been using this quote, from a 38-year-old protester named Jeremy puzzled by the habits of bankers on Bay Street, in Toronto's financial district, as evidence that that the protesters are lazy:

"It's weird protesting on Bay Street. You get there at 9 a.m. and the rich bankers who you want to hurl insults at and change their worldview have been at work for two hours already. And then when it's time to go, they're still there. I guess that's why they call them the one per cent. I mean, who wants to work those kinds of hours? That's the power of greed." - Jeremy, 38

Mr. Schatzker was surprised because Jeremy is a fictional character he invented recently for his weekly humor column published in Toronto's Globe and Mail newspaper.

As the Web site Mediate reported this week, opponents of the protest movement were apparently so pleased to read the quote Mr. Schatzker attributed to Jeremy — a 38-year-old protester puzzled by the habits of bankers on Bay Street, in Toronto's financial district — that they failed to notice that the column was clearly labelled "Satire" at the very top before copying the text and sharing it by on Facebook, in e-mails, on blogs and evenin outraged YouTube videos.

The fake quote was so widely cited that it even ended up being repeated on Tuesday by Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, at a campaign event.

Mr. Perry said that the quote had been sent to him by his son, who reportedlyworked in the financial industry until recently.

Speaking to The Lede by telephone on Wednesday, Jeremy's creator, Mr. Schatzker, said that the fictional quote had also been sent by e-mail to his brother, who also works in the financial industry, by someone who thought it was real. The satirist also said that it had never occurred to him that anyone might mistake his attempt to poke fun at the Occupy movement, by inventing a series of satirical quotes from protesters, for a real news report on Occupy Toronto. He writes, he said, for an audience of readers in Toronto who are familiar with his work.

Mr. Schatzker also insisted that he had not written the column as part of "a conspiracy to punk the right," as some people have suggested since it was reported that his satire had been mistaken for journalism. He pointed out that several of the quotes in the column were so ridiculous that it was hard to see how anyone could take the text seriously. He pointed, in particular, to the very first quote, which mocked the idea of protests in a country that already has generous social-welfare benefits, through the words of another fictional protester, identified as Tracy, 20, who said: "Looking back, I can't believe what we achieved in a few incredible days: government-funded health care, a well-regulated banking system, and a cap on corporate political donations. Our work is done."

The cross-border misunderstanding between a Canadian author and some of his American readers is particularly interesting given that it was a Canadian media organization, the anticorporate magazine Adbusters, which came up with the idea for the entire Occupy Wall Street movement.