Readers React to Boston Globe's Fake Front Page Satirizing Trump

The Globe calls the satire "an exercise in taking a man at his word."

The Boston Globe published a satirical front page that according to the Globe's editorial staff, paints a picture of what a Donald Trump presidency would look like in 2017.

"We wanted to get out the message that Donald Trump's toxic mix of violence, intimidation, hostility to criticism, blatant scapegoating of minorities is a political movement that is on the rise in this country and the GOP really needs to do something to stop it," said Kathleen Kingsbury, Deputy Managing Editor of the Boston Globe Editorial Page.

The main headline on the front page of the Ideas section, dated April 9, 2017, reads "Deportations to Begin."

There are a half-dozen other satirical articles including: 'Markets sink as trade war looms’ and 'Bank Glitch halts border wall work.'

Kingsbury says her team studied Donald Trump's policy plans to write the satirical articles.

"We really wanted to take him at his word. So we listen to speeches, we scoured his website. We considered who his advisors are and we did what globe does best - we reported it out and we put it on the front page because we wanted people to see in black and white the vision that Donald Trump has for America."

Some enjoyed the piece.

"It's great. Politics has always been satirical anyway," said Globe reader Bob Miczke of Boston.

"I think he's earned it," Boston's Brendan Brown said of Trump. "If people think about what he's proposing and really consider it is going to lead to some weird outcomes."

But many others were not amused.

"Thanks Globe for reminding me why I canceled my subscription! Why are they so terrified of Trump?" one Twitter user tweeted.

Another tweeted, "No Globe will ever be delivered to my house ever again. Propaganda news."

Kingsbury stresses the difference between the editorial page and the daily news operation. And says the goal here was to create a conversation.

"For generations, newspapers have had editorial pages and newsrooms and these have always been separate operations. The same goes for at the Globe. The editorial page at the Boston Globe every day comments on politics and other news events and that's how we stay relevant and this is just a new and unique way of doing that,” said Kingsbury.

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