Activism

Alternative news

by Nick A. Zaino III

If you bought a copy of USA Today last Thursday, you might have noticed something odd about the front page. A bold headline announced that the Departments of Defense and Education were to merge. And there was something wrong with the nameplate, too. It read USA DECAY NO. 1 IN AMERIKA . . . FIRST IN DAILY BRAINWASHING.

At least this is what your copy looked like if shiftdough.org, an activist group that publicizes the need to cut defense spending, got to it before you did. The organization claims to have wrapped one-page political parodies around copies of the national newspaper in Boston; New York City; Washington, DC; Denver; San Francisco and Berkeley, California; Burlington, Vermont; Concord, New Hampshire; and Bloomington, Indiana. At least two coin boxes and one store in Kenmore Square carried the altered paper.

It's hard to say how many people actually read the parody. But USA Today officials confirm that they are considering legal action against the group. And the service provider that hosts http://www.shiftdough.org has been inundated with calls from the media about the incident. When reached by phone on Friday at his home in Floro, Norway, Michael Dorfman, webmaster for shiftdough.org, claimed he knew nothing about the group's activities. "I only heard yesterday about this USA Decay, which sounds very clever, but the first I heard about it was when the Associated Press called me last night," he said.

A shiftdough.org spokesman, who refused to be identified, called the Phoenix shortly after the Phoenix spoke with Dorfman. ("Sorry I can't give you my name," he said. "I think generally people should take responsibility for what they do, but in this case, it's just not a good idea.") The anonymous spokesperson says the group doesn't have a unified policy position, but does confirm that its target is the Pentagon, and defense spending in general. "What we want is to get money out of the Pentagon," he says. "We think they've got too much, and there are so many other problems in the world that need those funds."