Margaret Engel - The Art of the Prank

Author: Margaret Engel

Margaret Engel is the managing editor of the Newseum, the interactive museum of news in Washington, D.C. She also is the president of the Alicia Patterson Foundation, the nation\"™s oldest journalism writing fellowship. She is a graduate of the University of Missouri\"™s School of Journalism and was a Nieman fellow at Harvard University. She is a board member of the Fund for Investigative Journalism, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards and a longtime member of Investigative Reporters and Editors. She has been part of the reporting staffs of the Washington Post, Des Moines Register and Lorain (OH) Journal. She has written for Esquire, Saveur and her book, \"Food Finds,\" co-written with her twin sister, is in its sixth season on The Food Network. She co-authored a Fodor\"™s guide to American baseball parks with her husband. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland and is a board member of the Montgomery County Community Foundation.

Margaret Engel is the managing editor of the Newseum, which will re-open Oct. 15, 2007 in new headquarters on the Mall in Washington, D.C.. She wrote this article specifically for the April 1, 2007 launch of ArtofthePrank.com. – JS

April 1 is a lighthearted celebration in America, but joking the other 364 days often gets civic pranksters in trouble.

It”s not that anything goes on April Fool”s Day, it just seems that the public gets the punchline that day, before quickly returning to a grim analysis of what is and what isn”t acceptable.

Although the First Amendment is supposed to defend our freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly and the right to petition our government, the reality is that officialdom often can”t take a joke. Continue reading “The First Amendment Can Take a Joke”