The creator of a satirical blog that portends to be a hyper-local version of the Onion admitted on Brooklyn Paper Radio that he started to poke fun of Bay Ridge’s Republican candidates for Council while volunteering for a Democratic candidate — and only confessed to creating the site after his candidate lost.
Dan Hetteix, who puts together the fake news website “The Ambrose Light” said he didn’t have a problem leaving Democrats out of the mix in his posts because he skews “progressive” and it was clear his site was just making jokes even though he was volunteering for Khader El-Yateem.
“One of our mantras for the site was ‘We’re putting the ‘fake’ back in fake news,” Hetteix told host and Brooklyn Paper editor-in-chief Vince DiMiceli.
Hetteix was joined on the show by journalist-turned-politician Ross Barkan, who plans on trading in his pen and pad for a job in Albany.
Barkan, who has written for Gothamist, the Village Voice, and the Guardian, and has posted his manifesto online, said he wants to win. But he still plans on writing his opinion pieces for the Guardian while on the campaign trail, and might even use his experience in future columns.
“I might write a bit about the campaign and explain what it is like to be an actual candidate for office,” he said. “The drudgery, the knocking on doors.”
That set off DiMiceli, who claimed no candidate has ever knocked on his door.
The three then discussed their thoughts on Columbus Day, and what, if anything, should be done to the statues of the man who “discovered” America. But you’ll have to listen to hear all that.
Brooklyn Paper radio is usually recorded and podcast live almost every Tuesday at 4 pm.