History Main / PhonyNewscast

* The movie ''Film/RoboCop1987'' has a series of newscasts where horrible events are described during the news in an upbeat fashion, such as when a police officer is brutally gunned down. The reporter cheers on the cop, saying how he's rooting for the officer to live.

* The DVD for the 2004 ''Film/DawnOfTheDead2004'' remake includes fake newscasts. We see the ZombieApocalypse spread, and the anchor becomes more and more disheartened.

* The 2004 ''{{Thunderbirds}}'' somehow manages to shoehorn a reporter into every scene in which the Thunderbirds appear in the outside world. No idea how anyone could consider this remotely plausible, since she'd have to have advance warning. Maybe the Hood tipped her off?

The Phony Newscast has two particular uses. One is when a fictional program wants to appear to be an actual NewsBroadcast. The other is when a commercial for something is pretending to run a newscast related to the product.

* The movie ''{{Robocop}}'' has a series of newscasts where horrible events are described during the news in an upbeat fashion, such as when a police officer is brutally gunned down. The reporter cheers on the cop, saying how he's rooting for the officer to live.

* {{Elf}}

* ''Oil Storm'', a 2005 mocumentary that aired on FX and Discovery, depicting a fictional oil crisis and what would happen as the result of the highly oil dependent United States facing a severe shortage. In the movie, a major hurricane destroys key oil infrastructure at Port Fourchon, Louisiana, percipitating a Murphy's Law series of events that snowball -- including a tanker collision in the narrow Port of Houston and terrorist attacks over the oil trade (including the destruction of the huge Ras Tanura oil refinery in Saudi Arabia). These events drive the price of oil to above $200 per barrel and gasoline to near $9 per gallon. The mockumentary follows several people, including the owners of a mom-and-pop convenience store, a paramedic, stock market and oil analysts, government officials and others, and includes a substantial amount of human drama from the first events to the resolution -- through diplomatic skill, the United States winning a $16 billion/year oil deal with Russia, which helps replace the oil lost in the earlier events.

* ''StarshipTroopers'': "Would you like to know more?"

* ''{{The Dark Knight}}'' has newscasts during the film reporting on the Joker and the Batman; in the DVD extras you're treated to 4 fake in-depth newscasts about Gotham.

* The DVD for the 2005 ''DawnOfTheDead'' remake includes fake newscasts. We see the ZombieApocalypse spread, and the anchor becomes more and more disheartened.

* The radio version of ''{{War of the Worlds}}'', which may well be the earliest known instance of this trope. It worked a bit too well, as there were supposedly instances of panic and suicides among people who thought it was a real broadcast.

* ''Mercury Theatre On The Air'': The most famous episode was the October 30, 1938 broadcast, ''The War of the Worlds'', which depicted a series of news bulletins covering an alien invasion by Martians interrupting the program of a generic big band performance. Adding to the realism was that the ''Mercury Theatre'' ran without commercial breaks, with no disclaimers (until the end). The program was said to have created widespread panic from thousands of listeners who believed an actual invasion was occurring – mostly, unsophisticated, uneducated viewers who were unable to reason that the sequence of events, as dramatized, was a little too fast (20 minutes from "explosions on Mars" to the "end of the world") or read the radio listings in their local newspaper promoting "War of the Worlds" as that night's dramatization. In any case, "War of the Worlds" cemented Orson Wells' fame as a radio/movie/TV broadcaster, writer and producer.

* One local classic rock station plays a commercial that sounds exactly like a radio broadcast, complete with generic opening radio jingle music, phony DJ talking about "more music after the break" before segueing to the product (an Internet sales service), and when he's looking up the phone number you need to call, he pauses and rumples paper to make it sound like the whole thing was spontaneous. It fails a little when immediately after the commercial, the ''real'' jingle plays and the ''real'' DJ talks.

* ''Oil Storm'', a 2005 mocumentary that aired on FX and Discovery, depicting a fictional oil crisis and what would happen as the result of the highly oil dependent United States facing a severe shortage. In the movie, a major hurricane destroys key oil infrastructure at Port Fourchon, Louisiana, percipitating a Murphy's Law series of events that snowball -- including a tanker collision in the narrow Port of Houston and terrorist attacks over the oil trade (including the destruction of the huge Ras Tanura oil refinery in Saudi Arabia -- drive the price of oil to above $200 per barrel and gasoline to near $9 per gallon. The mockumentary follows several people, including the owners of a mom-and-pop convenience store, a paramedic, stock market and oil analysts, government officials and others, and includes a substantial amount of human drama from the first events to the resolution (through diplomatic skill, the United States winning a $16 billion/year oil deal with Russia).

** It's quite common in the new ''DoctorWho''.

* The movie ''Robocop'' has a series of newscasts where horrible events are described during the news in an upbeat fashion, such as when a police officer is brutally gunned down. The reporter cheers on the cop, saying how he's rooting for the officer to live.
* The radio version of ''War of the Worlds'', which may well be the earliest known instance of this trope.
** It worked a bit too well, as there were supposedly instances of panic and suicides among people who thought it was a real broadcast.
* [[StarshipTroopers Would you like to know more?]]

* TheBBC often uses real news reporters for this. It's quite common in the new DoctorWho.

* The DVD for the 2005 ''DawnOfTheDead'' remake includes fake newscasts. We see the ZombieApocalypse spread, and the anchor become more and more disheartened.
* {{Batman}} {{The Dark Knight}} had newscasts during the film reporting on the Joker and the Batman but in the DVD extras you're treated to 4 fake in-depth newscasts about Gotham.

* This troper's local classic rock station plays a commercial that sounds exactly like a radio broadcast, complete with generic opening radio jingle music, phony DJ talking about "more music after the break" before segueing to the product (an Internet sales service), and when he's looking up the phone number you need to call, he pauses and rumples paper to make it sound like the whole thing was spontaneous. It fails a little when immediately after the commercial, the ''real'' jingle plays and the ''real'' DJ talks.

* The BBC often uses real news reporters for this. It's quite common in the new DoctorWho.
** A rather odd example: In ''{{Blackadder}} The Third'', then BBC election correspondent Vincent Hanna appeared as "[[IdenticalGrandson his own great-great grandfather]]", reporting on the Dunny-on-the-Wold by-election for ''The Country Gentleman’s Pig Fertilizer Gazette''. This was treated exactly as a TV broadcast, even though it was the 18th century. But [[AnachronismStew that's how Blackadder works]].

* The Sibuxiang Beast commercial which caused a minor panic in China: [[http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/archive/permalink/the_sibuxiang_beast/ Museum of Hoaxes Article on it]]
* This troper's local classic rock station plays a commercial that sounds exactly like a radio broadcast, complete with generic opening radio jingle music, phony DJ talking about "more music after the break" before segwaying to the product (an internet sales service), and when he's looking up the phone number you need to call, he pauses and rumples paper to make it sound like the whole thing was spontaneous. It fails a little when immediately after the commercial, the ''real'' jingle plays and the ''real'' DJ talks.
* A British radio ad for cold remedies begins "This is an important newsflash. We are under attack. I repeat we are under ah... ah... ah... choo!"
* Oh, if only the internet were immune. "Breaking News! Britney's Weight Loss Secret Revealed!"
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*The Sibuxiang Beast commercial which caused a minor panic in China: [[http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/Hoaxipedia/Sibuxiang_Beast/ Museum of Hoaxes Article on it]]