Kansas City, Mo. ? A weekly newspaper’s fake cover story on the discovery of Confederate soldiers’ remains at the future site of a downtown arena is no joke to officials from the governor on down.

The Pitch, this city’s alternative weekly newspaper, published in its latest issue “Rebel Hell,” a satirical piece presented as any other factual item in the paper.

It reports that workers at the Sprint Center arena site – for which ground was broken Friday – unearthed the graves of a half-dozen Confederate soldiers violently killed in October 1864.

It said the find spurred a series of emergency negotiations among government officials and put the future of the arena in doubt.

Accompanied by photographs, quotes from a Kansas University academic and requisite “no comments” from officials, it had all the markings of an actual newspaper story. Not so.

The paper’s editor, C.J. Janovy, has acknowledged the piece was a hoax written by Managing Editor Tony Ortega under a pseudonym, but is unapologetic.

“We knew exactly what we were doing and were not surprised by the reaction,” Janovy said.

Ortega said the piece was a response to Gov. Matt Blunt’s decision earlier this month to allow the Confederate flag to fly at a state cemetery. He said he was surprised that some readers didn’t recognize it as satire.

“I truly did not know how else to deal with” it, Ortega said. “I figured an editorial or column wouldn’t do it.”

The story prompted calls to City Hall from a confused public and calls from the government for The Pitch to acknowledge its joke.

“There is no truth to this story and we call on The Pitch to acknowledge that both the story and the writer are fictitious,” the city manager of Kansas City, Wayne Cauthen, said in a written statement.

Blunt’s spokeswoman, Jessica Robinson, said she was disappointed a news outlet would print fiction as fact.

“The article is not only fictitious, it is also offensive,” she said. “The paper should immediately identify the article for what it is and apologize to its readers.”

The Pitch is owned by Phoenix-based New Times Inc.