The Onion Keeps Running Same Post After Mass Shootings

Headline and post satirize inability to stop them from recurring in US
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 4, 2017 12:35 PM CDT
One Constant After Mass Shootings: This Onion Article
Flowers and signs are left at a makeshift memorial for the victims in Las Vegas Wednesday.   (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

"'No Way To Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens" reads the headline on a widely shared Onion article after the Las Vegas shooting. If the headline sounds familiar, it's because the Onion has run essentially the same piece under the same headline at least five times now after mass shootings. (See this tweet from CNN's Brian Stelter rounding them up.) Each version gets edited slightly to reflect details of the latest shooting, but one quote is consistent, per the New York Times. Someone says, "This was a terrible tragedy, but sometimes these things just happen and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop them."

Versions of the article have gone viral after previous mass shootings, but Monday's article, shared more than 100,000 times on Facebook and Twitter, prompted one of the Onion's biggest traffic days ever, reports the Washington Post. A spokesperson for the site didn't comment, other than saying the piece speaks for itself. But last month, managing editor Marnie Shure told Vice that "by re-running the same commentary it strengthens the original commentary tenfold each time." Adds Stelter: “They are channeling the frustration of a huge section of the county that’s baffled and bewildered about what’s going on.” (More mass shootings stories.)

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