Analyzing News Satire

Instructions: After annotating your selected article, answer the following questions
thoughtfully. Always include evidence from the text to support your analysis, and focus on
digging deep. Please use a different (not obnoxious) font color for your answers.

Article Headline: Montana Governor Kills Mountain Lion Being Monitored By National Parks
Staff
Publisher: The Onion
URL: https://www.theonion.com/montana-governor-kills-mountain-lion-being-monitored-by-
1848612093

1.What are the underlying assumptions or unwritten attitudes in the piece? The piece is very
clearly making fun of politics, specifically the conservitive spectrum of it. The article uses
montana as it's jumping point, a historically red state and also has the commenters restate
common conservitive tropes.

2. What foolish, flawed, or wrong human action or aspect of society is being lampooned?
This piece is taking a very strang situation and is highlighting how the party system creates a
dichotomy where one will always argue and propose the same solutions or they will do the
same but with a different set of legos.

3. What would the author’s argument look like stripped of its humor?
The arguement would like be looking of the regurgatation of conservative talking points, even
if they are not understood, on places like facebook. That’s another one of the points of the
artle, the common people are who are important. They give the quotes. The author makes it
clear that they are normal people by their titles.

4. What characteristics of news does the satirist use to skewer the target?
The article opens with the triangle, also with the most realistic information first. This
information is actually factually correct which is gross. But then he adds the satire later,
making fun of people’s reactions to this event. The first paragraph is almost entirely
true.

5. In what ways do these techniques disarm the intended target or sweeten the criticism to
make it acceptable to its target?
These tehiniques make the audience more acceptable to the author’s standpoint
because they have already softened them with the factual information. The quotes are also
just very entertaining, they are clearing comments coming from a memorized place instead of
reactionary one.
6. What is the goal of the satirist (i.e., how does the satirist wish society, the individual, the
body politic, or an institution to change or amend itself)?
The satirist wants the audience to not be the witnesses in the article. The first quote is one
completely lacking empathy and understanding, and basic knowledge of law, which clearly
highlights the stupidity of all these witnesses. They want the audience to gain a better
understanding of all of those skills

7. How effective are the methods of this particular satirist?

This satritst is really talented because the satire kicks you in the butt, on the way out.
The satire is the cherry but probably the most important part of this article. That is what is so
powerful about this article, it gives real information but it truly makes people think on their own
accord.