Is US politics so bizarre that headlines require a label: 'Not the Onion'?
'Not The Onion' is a way to flag a political article or assertion considered so unbelievable that it just had to come from the
This photo provided by Little, Brown and Company, cropped here for space, shows the book cover of 'The Onion Magazine: The Iconic Covers That Transformed an Undeserving World.'
Little, Brown and Company/AP/File
鈥淣辞迟 The Onion.鈥� A way to flag a political article or assertion considered so extraordinarily absurd and unbelievable that it just had to come from the聽
鈥淣辞迟 The Onion鈥� has been used to describe all sorts of real-life ridiculousness; the entertainment and news site Reddit has a with the name that boasts more than 2 million readers. But a variety of recent examples indicate that it鈥檚 becoming especially popular in the political world, often when put in front of a headline or as the subject line of an e-mail.
Last week, White House spokesman Eric Schultz the Taliban an 鈥渁rmed insurgency鈥� instead of a terrorist group. Reporters asked Schultz鈥檚 boss, Josh Earnest, why the Islamic fundamentalist movement wasn鈥檛 seen as a terror organization, even though the Treasury Department had designated it as one. Earnest鈥檚 assertions that the Taliban carries out 鈥渢actics that are akin to terrorism鈥� led the Republican National Committee to a mocking e-mail response with the subject line 鈥淣辞迟 The Onion.鈥�
Earnest also came in for criticism in July, when he rebuked The Washington Post for running an article in which anonymous sources the Obama administration failed to heed warnings that led to the refugee crisis on the US-Mexico border. Noting that officials had just scheduled a White House-sanctioned background briefing with anonymous 鈥渟enior administration officials,鈥� Politico鈥檚 Dylan Byers an article headlined: 鈥淣辞迟 The Onion: White House press secretary criticizes anonymous sourcing.鈥�
Bloggers are especially fond of the phrase. When outspoken liberal activist and MSNBC host the Rev. Al Sharpton held a meal attended by the family of Eric Garner, the New Yorker who died at police hands during an arrest, the right-wing website Gateway Pundit a post: 鈥淣辞迟 The Onion: Al Sharpton Denounces 鈥楥heap Demagogues鈥� Exploiting Execution of Cops.鈥�
Across the political spectrum, the website Raw Story last month headlined 鈥淣辞迟 The Onion: Louie Gohmert Named 鈥楲egislator of the Year鈥� by Texas Judges鈥� after the highly controversial conservative received the honor from the Judges/Commissioners Association of Deep East Texas.
But its usage isn鈥檛 always confined to blasts between partisans. The Capitol Hill newspaper The Hill found a way in September to deploy the phrase to an unlikely agreement between one of the Senate鈥檚 most outspoken Democrats and one of its most conservative Republicans: 鈥淣辞迟 The Onion: Elizabeth Warren, Richard Shelby Agree.鈥澛�