Several newspaper boxes in downtown Lawrence and at least one on the Kansas University campus were filled Wednesday with unwelcome additions: false front pages featuring stories critical of capitalism, corporate media and the U.S. judicial system.
The false pages, designed to look like USA Today, were found wrapped around legitimate copies of USA Today, the Lawrence Journal-World, the Kansas City Star and the New York Times. Such pages also were found in newspaper boxes in California, Chicago, Chapel Hill, N.C., and Washington, D.C.
Surveillance video shows that two people inserted false pages at 5:50 a.m. Wednesday into a box outside The News Center, 645 N.H., said Ralph Gage, director of special projects for The World Company, which owns the Journal-World.
The source of the false pages is not clear, he said, but judging by the printed content it appears to be the work of anarchists.
Journal-World employees noticed the false front pages early Wednesday morning and then worked to remove them from boxes. The company is checking its surveillance videos for evidence that could lead to filing of a police report.
While only one customer had contacted him to report being misled by the false content, Gage said, it was still one customer too many.
"We're serious about what we present to the public," Gage said. "We stand behind it. We don't want other people inserting anything in our product or wrapping it around our product."
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nobody1793 (anonymous) says…
"The source of the false pages is not clear, he said, but judging by the printed content it appears to be the work of anarchists."What are you talking about? This stunt involved planning and organization. Anarchists don't have time for that kind of crap!
daveyjoe (Dave Strano) says…
Nobody1793, your understanding of anarchism is a joke.http://www.infoshop.org/faq/If you want to have a serious debate about politics, I'm all for you being critical and disagreeing... but your immature uneducated jab makes you sound like a moron.I mean, anarchists in this town sure are unorganized. That's how they've somehow managed to keep a social center open for 7 years and maintain a constant and critical presence in local political movements.
BigPrune (anonymous) says…
A concerted nationwide effort. Let's see, the article said the false front pages were, "featuring stories critical of capitalism, corporate media and the U.S. judicial system." Except for the "corporate media," since they were literally in the tank with his campaign, it sounds more like some Obama talking points to me. :)
JayCat_67 (anonymous) says…
Daveyjoe, if it makes you feel any better, I took Nobody's comment as a jab at the stereotypical perception of anarchists and not at the anarchists themselves.
Agnostick (anonymous) says…
jerk_patrol (Anonymous) says:Did it look like an aging and pathetic Peter Graves? With perhaps an insert feature by quasi-historian David Irving? A front-page feature about pedophiles not caught? A column about the benefits of guns and smoking. Bitching and moaning about Lawrence investments that non-Lawrencians don't even pay?_____________________________________________________Last I heard, ol' "Peter Graves" was too caught up in booze and child porn to pull away long enough to organize something like that.Sad sad sad...--Ag
Agnostick (anonymous) says…
Other cities reporting the prank:http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/77638/http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1998497/http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1283555.html
Mixolydian (anonymous) says…
Wow, I didn't think anything could get more lame than Punk'd.
Pywacket (anonymous) says…
Jerk-patrol~ That was great--your Sherlock-quality deductions, the scary threats, everything! Thanks for sharing! It's been a wonderful, celebratory day... Good to finish it with a laugh!
nobody1793 (anonymous) says…
"If you want to have a serious debate about politics, I'm all for you being critical and disagreeing: but your immature uneducated jab makes you sound like a moron."Anarchy is what is occurring in Somalia. The absence of any meaningful government. Bandits, pirates, breakaway military groups stealing food from UN aid workers. A humanitarian nightmare. Anarchy is not about FAQs, social centers, and fake newspapers.
daveyjoe (Dave Strano) says…
Again, nobody, please do some actual research and some reading. Anarchism has been a political ideology since the 1700's. I am more than willing to debate you on any sorts of things related to it, and I can accept that most of the folks on this board will be critical of it.However, if you can't do some minor research and actually educate yourself, you're only making yourself look like you can't bother to read.
RachelAnderson (anonymous) says…
awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
bombshell (anonymous) says…
I keep receiving redneck text messages from some Lawrence number I don't recognize and I'm getting pissed about it. I told them their "joke" was completely inappropriate and not to send me any more of their crap, but If it happens again, I'm reporting this guy/girl's number to the LJWorld.
smitty (anonymous) says…
The last time this happened was in 1991 when flyers were placed in the JW news stands about the LPD killing of Gregg Sevier. I would link you to this article but the JW world archvies search is not responding to the request.
consumer1 (anonymous) says…
Daveyjoe, Probably ought to just let it go. Local anarchist are nothing more than Leewood children. They need to just hop in their beemers, with their fashion tie dyed t-shirt and dreadlocks and go home. I hear their mothers calling them to dinner.
daveyjoe (Dave Strano) says…
consumer1, Umm... none of us are from Leawood, nor do many of us even own cars. I'm from Leavenworth of all places, something I'm very honest about. I don't wear tie dye, and have a shaved head. Where the hell do you folks even pull these ridiculous stereotypes from?
N_Trenched (anonymous) says…
daveyjoke..The stereotypes you speak of are they exact ones your clan actively portrays. Promoting chaos, violence and hate will get you nowhere.
Kam_Fong_as_Chin_Ho (anonymous) says…
Serious question for anarchists. If your social center was looted or set on fire, would you call the police to help solve the crime or would that go against the idea of being a self-governing organization? Just curious. I have no problems with anarchists, but I always wondered about that.
daveyjoe (Dave Strano) says…
N_Trenched... what are you talking about? Have you read anything we put out? Listened to any of us talk? We talk about building horizontal power structures. We're members of neighborhood associations and unions. We provide free food to our neighbors and community members. We work against violence (the use of force, mostly at the hands of the state, to coerce others). War, genocide, poverty, economic systems based off wealth for the few and the marginalization of the many... that's chaos. Yet again, I will reiterate anarchism does not equate to chaos, and not one of the anarchists working in the Lawrence community have ever espoused such nonsense. Only folks like you who need to get off your computer and actually get out into your community and maybe see what anarchists are actually doing and saying are the ones providing such ridiculous snipish comments.Comments like this are the reason I never spend time on these boards, let alone internet forums. I've posted maybe 50 times in 7 years. The trolls on this site are as dense as brick walls.
Dejacrew423 (anonymous) says…
That's a pretty clever prank
daveyjoe (Dave Strano) says…
Kam_Fong...Well, let's look at a couple of things worth mentioning first.. Usually when people loot (despite the popular assumption being put out by the mainstream media) they're doing it for resources they don't have.Our space provides resources for free to any member of the community that wants to utilize them. I don't see why someone would then break in and take our things in the middle of the night anyway.The other option, is that folks trying to silence us or get rid of us would do such a thing. And, really, a response from our movement against those folks would come directly from us, not the police.But let's be really realistic here, our landlord may disagree with that, of course, if his building is burned down, and it would be his deal to decide what to do about that. Would we call the police? No. What would be the point? Police don't usually prevent anti-social behavior, they just punish folks after the fact. And they don't usually catch suspects involved with those types of incidents anyway. Also, yeah, I would think it would go against a lot of our basic principles to call the cops in such a situation.I can already see the comments relating to this that will pop up, especially the threats and promises from folks on the right to visit our space in the middle of the night. However, what's been proven over and over again, is that unlike anarchists, the folks on the right on these boards don't actually do anything they say they will, so I'm not too worried.
ralphralph (anonymous) says…
... Usually when people loot (despite the popular assumption being put out by the mainstream media) they're doing it for resources they don't have. ...Huh?Is this based on something?Looks like an empty supposition.
bearded_gnome (anonymous) says…
bombshell:I keep receiving redneck text messages from some Lawrence number I don't recognize and I'm getting pissed about it. I told them their "joke" was completelyinappropriate and not to send me any more of their crap, but If it happens again, I'm reporting this guy/girl's number to the LJWorld.uh, what's a "redneck text message?" just puzzled. besides, "redneck" is an offensive generalization stereotyping a group of people, please use the politically correct: "agro-american" instead.***Dave Strano's comments sound as if he and his bunch believe in vigilantism. okay, now we know.
tribalzendancer (Tim Hjersted) says…
Posters on here making uneducated comments should really open their eyes and learn about things beyond their small-minded view of the world.These people are the real problem with society, the people who are intolerant, close-minded, and overall seem to portray a lack of compassion and understanding for the diversity of society.