1. What Satire Is, and What We're Doing With It
Satire is the use of humour, irony, and exaggeration to expose and criticise the powerful. It is one of the oldest forms of political commentary, has been practiced by everyone from Jonathan Swift to The Onion, and is protected speech in virtually every democratic country.
What distinguishes good satire from defamation, misinformation, or just making stuff up is that it is grounded in something true. Our articles are invented, but they are invented in direct response to real events, real statements, and real patterns of behaviour by the public figures they concern. The fabricated quote has to be recognisably in the spirit of things the person actually says. The fictional event has to illuminate something true about how they actually behave.
If we're doing it right, you should be able to read one of our pieces and immediately recognise why it's funny — because you recognise the reality it's satirising.
2. Who We Cover, and How
We only write about public figures. Politicians, executives, media personalities, and others who have voluntarily entered public life and whose public conduct is therefore open to commentary and criticism. We do not write satirical pieces about private individuals.
We exaggerate real behaviour; we do not invent false character. A piece about a politician who broke a promise on taxes satirises what they actually did. We would not write a piece falsely accusing someone of a crime they did not commit, because that is not satire — it is defamation dressed up as a joke.
All quotes are fabricated. Every quotation in every article on this site is invented for satirical purposes. We never present a real quote as satire, and we never present a satirical quote as real. When in doubt, see the large red disclaimer at the top of every page.
3. The Underlying Facts
Although our articles are fiction, they are typically prompted by real events — real polling data, real votes, real statements, real policy decisions. We take care to get the underlying facts right even when the article built on top of them is entirely made up.
If a satirical piece says "after raising council tax by 5%," that figure comes from real reporting. If a piece references a 34% approval rating, that is a real number from a real poll. We believe the comedy lands harder when you know the premise is accurate.
Where we have embellished, exaggerated, or constructed a fictional scenario around a real event, this is made clear by the overall satirical framing of the piece. If you are ever unsure whether something is real, it is not. See disclaimer.
4. Corrections Policy
If we get an underlying fact wrong — for example, if a polling figure we cited is incorrect, or if we have attributed a real policy decision to the wrong person — we will correct it and note the correction at the bottom of the relevant piece.
We do not issue corrections for the invented parts of our articles, because they are invented and therefore cannot be factually incorrect. If we wrote that a fictional version of a politician said "I have the best words," and you write to tell us they would never say that, we appreciate your feedback but will not be issuing a correction.
To submit a correction, please use our contact form and select "Correction" as the category.
5. Legal Notice
Fake News Daily is a satirical publication. All content, including all named individuals, all quoted statements, and all described events, is fictional and intended for satirical and entertainment purposes only. Nothing on this site constitutes defamation, as the satirical nature of all content is clearly and prominently disclosed.
All individuals named in our articles are public figures whose public conduct is the subject of satirical commentary. We do not make factual claims about these individuals; we satirise them.
If you are a named individual and believe a specific piece of content crosses the line from satire into defamation, please contact us at the address below. We take these concerns seriously and will review them promptly.