There may be a glimmer of truth behind the spoof video posted here Friday of Rupert Murdoch calling a tabloid parody of his Wall Street Journal "a fucking outrage... I want every single copy burned." An apparent Journal circulation guy has been going newsstand-to-newsstand in Los Angeles buying up all copies of the Journal parody pictured (click through for larger image). It's possible neither Murdoch nor anyone else at WSJ owner News Corp. is connected to the scheme, but the guy buying up the papers is the same one who usually brings Journal promotional materials, was wearing a WSJ shirt and paid with a corporate Amex, one newsstand operator told the Times:

"He grabbed them all, said, ‘I need to buy all of these,' " Mr. Laurence said. "He had been going around to different stands, buying them."



The man paid with a corporate American Express card. "At first he's saying they have to make a correction or it's not supposed to be out yet," Mr. Metz said. "But then he said these are not published by The Wall Street Journal."

The Journal parody was created by former National Lampoon editor Tony Hendra, who has parodied the WSJ before, as well as comedian Richard Belzer, Monty Python member Terry Jones and humorist Andy Borowitz, according to the Times. Its website is wsjparody.com.

UPDATE: Not explicitly noted in the Times story is that the New York Press created the parody.

[Times]

(Parody image via New York Times)