It's not Wednesday, and that's the New York Times.

[theweaselking]

White House orders The Onion to stop making fun of them.

Citing the United States Code, Mr. Dixton wrote that the Presidential seal "is not to be used in connection with commercial ventures or products in any way that suggests presidential support or endorsement." Exceptions may be made, he noted, but The Onion had never applied for such an exception.

Comments

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

That reminds me of the NY MTA, which stopped a guy from distributing reformatted subway maps that were easier to read on an iPod. Their justification? The maps were copyright the MTA.

There's something goddamned intolerable about the public being denied the right to freely distribute public information that was produced with public money for the good of, well, the public.

[rgovrebo.livejournal.com]

Actually, this is something the White House got right. Nobody should use that seal except the White House. "Ok, they're funny guys of whom I approve" is not a good reason.

Curiously, I saw a similar thing with a Norwegian TV channel. A satirical programme used a lightly modified version of the national Coat of Arms http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilde:Norwegian_COA_redyellow.250px.png in which the lion had been changed from female to male. It's not a difference you'd notice easily. They were told to cease and desist.

What if, say, some right-wing group made oh-so-funny racist propaganda and used that seal?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

It's the "in any way that suggests presidential support or endorsement" that gets me. It's The Onion. It's clearly not an endorsement or support, and hence should not be covered under that condition.

[cmseward.livejournal.com]

Tomorrow's issue ought to be interesting, at least.

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah.