outtakes

By Rick Outzen

One of my favorite issues was Inweekly's April Fools edition, but with so much misinformation on social media, we decided years ago to drop it. With everyone hollering "fake news," we didn't want to add to the confusion, even though we were doing it in jest.

Parody and satire have gotten lost in today's toxic political discourse. People move too quickly to demonize, marginalize and disenfranchise those with whom they disagree. Many of the more current examples of parody have a mean-spirited component intended to damage a person. Our goal was to always highlight the silliness of our politicians without drawing blood.

In 2003, Pensacola City Hall lost a referendum to create a festival park on the waterfront property across the street. We published "City Trumped!" and told a story about how billionaire Donald Trump had won the 27.5 acres in a poker game with City Manager Tom Bonfield in the champagne room of Babe's Show Club.

Our reporter Aces High wrote that Trump planned to build two 110-story towers along with the Fetterman Naval Marine Museum, Grand Wiggins Casino and the Fogg Crystal Ball Institute, but the developer was open to public input. We set up an email, high@inweekly.net, for submissions.

The following year, we had a sheriff who loved gadgets. We wrote that Sheriff Ron McNesby had bought a submarine and tank on eBay for his law enforcement arsenal. The stories were so believable that Ron Mac had to field questions about them while on the campaign trail.

Years ago, Inweekly hit its April Fools' Day peak with several articles that tapped into the day's news. The University of West Florida was striving to better connect with the public. We published the UWF Board of Trustees approved the addition of football on the heels of the University of South Alabama launching its program. UWF Argos would field a Division 1 team that would play its game at the Community Maritime Park.

We said the rumor was the first head coach would be Mike Price, who lost the Alabama job after an unfortunate incident with a Pensacola stripper during the Emerald Coast Golf Classic. The schedule was ambitious, with the first three games on the road versus Alabama, Auburn and Florida State. The Argos would host Notre Dame for its home opener. We even gave the phone number of the UWF Sports Information Department for people to make reservations for season tickets.

Of course, football fans flooded UWF with calls. UWF President John Cavanaugh took advantage of the buzz and created T-shirts touting the football team with "Still Undefeated" on the back of the shirts. In 2013, UWF announced its new football program, and the first home game was played at Community Maritime Park.

In 2008, the city of Mobile was booming. Northrop Grumman and European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. were chosen over Boeing to supply the Air Force with 179 aerial refueling tankers. EADS had selected Mobile for a $600 million factory, thanks to $120 million in incentives. The previous year, ThyssenKrupp AG of Germany announced a 2,700-employee steel mill plant to be built north of Mobile.

Why not annex Pensacola to Alabama? Our reporter Walker Holmes wrote the Pensacola City Council and Escambia County Commission had passed a joint resolution asking that the state of Alabama annex the county. We suggested residents go to the tax collector to get their Alabama tags at a discounted rate.

While Escambia County wasn't annexed, the article spurred discussions about ramping up the county's economic development. Two years later, Rick Scott was elected governor. With the help of state incentives and Triumph Gulf Coast dollars, Navy Federal Credit Union built a massive campus in Beulah, and ST Engineering developed its MRO (maintenance, repair and overall) campus at the Pensacola International Airport.

We published the April Fools issues for 10 years. Some were better than others, but these stood out. Maybe the political climate will cool enough to bring them back. {in} rick@inweekly.net