ASG might have thought it exorcised its evil demons with Dave Sheldon’s graduation last spring. But evil is moving online.
Promising to “publish the rumors The Daily has too much ‘journalistic integrity’ to print,” Sheldon has devoted a Web site to being “your source for essential ASG election gossip.”
Closethedoor.evildave.net boasts a “vast network of spies and informants (who) will keep tabs on goings-on” and report back to Sheldon during the election season.
With a “standard disclaimer” that “everything on this site is a lie,” the site prints fake news briefs about the election and features a “random rumor” generator. The generator displays rumors that anonymous sources have e-mailed to the site’s “crack editorial staff.”
One of the first rumors on the site, which first hit the Internet April 1, was that Associated Student Government presidential candidate Eric Svendsen who dropped out of the race Wednesday didn’t actually exist. The site boasted on Thursday that Svendsen’s withdrawal from the race substantiates the rumor.
“Why else would a candidate drop out of the race right before the day he would have to make a public appearance at the debates?” the site says.
Sheldon, the former table-breaking, popcorn chicken-chucking, professional wrestling connoisseur, unsuccessfully ran for ASG president for three years before being elected in a run-off last year.
His site attempts to fill the humor void it says was created by the departure of “the most Electrifying force in Political Entertainment.”
“Will this year’s debates be as interesting?” the site asks. “Will this year’s candidates pull out all the stops and show the campus what they’re looking for in a presidential candidate? Why do I doubt it?”