If all this sounds familiar, you probably have seen this story before. In The Onion.

Apparently no one had told the gentleman from Louisiana that The Onion is pure satire. One commenter asked the Congressman: “How exactly did you get elected?” The posting has since been deleted from Fleming’s page. But, here’s a screenshot for you.

Ryan Tate wrote, "A tipster says word out of the publication is that it’s in negotiations to sell to a large media company.  It’s not clear how far apart the two sides are; we’re not assuming any deal is imminent."

Unfortunately, not much other information is available at the moment, either; the identity of any would-be acquirer remains unknown, for example, and no prices have been publicly discussed.

But this rumor has a certain weight to it despite the lack of details.  The Los Angeles and San Francisco print editions of The Onion were discontinued in May due to a lack of advertising revenue, and aside from the actual papers, jobs were cut in the process.  So lack of money seems to pose a considerable problem.

Comedy Central’s owner, Viacom, has supposedly made a run at The Onion before, too, so an acquisition attempt wouldn’t be unprecedented.

We’ll stay tuned and hope the resolution of this story doesn’t give fans of The Onion cause to weep.

If you don’t know what The Onion is, tough shallots – I’m prepared to move on without you.  And so, apparently, is the fine company is question.

“I was surprised to learn that they’re read in 752 countries, have news bureaus in 412 countries, are broadcast on 14,800 radio stations, offer a 24-hour news network, have a multinational intelligence agency, own 95% of all grocery store circulars, are the proprietors of an upscale haberdashery, offer mercenary embedded journalists for hire, and employ newsboys from an orphanage, which they also run,” wrote Yahoo’s Nicki Dugan on the Yodel Anecdotal blog.

For that matter, The Onion may also have an influence at Yahoo; this would explain why Koechley wound up in Sunnyvale instead of the famed Googleplex.  It would also account for a few recent moves on Yahoo’s part; I remain confused by one exec’s decision to combine Canada with Europe (strategically speaking), and a Yodel Anecdotal post about a cricket victory seemed rather out of place.

Ah, well, anything for a laugh, and from the sound of it, Koechley got a lot of them during his stay at Yahoo’s headquarters.

The Onion will provide audio and video content, articles, blogs and "news" to MySpace and MySpaceTV. The Onion will also have its own profile on MySpace.

"The news business is like the tobacco business: you want to reach new readers at as young and impressionable an age as possible," Onion president Sean Mills said. "MySpace was, of course, a natural partner in that regard."

Along with offering online video and audio content, The Onion will also have a staff blog on MySpace that will provide a behind the scenes look into the "892" offices of The Onion.

"The Wall Street Journal is all well and good, but The Onion News Network represents the best in hard-hitting investigative journalism (at least on MySpace)," said Jeff Berman, GM of MySpaceTV. "Also, we lost a bet."

 The Onion says that they have 4 million online readers each month and 3 million readers who read the print edition.

Other content partners on MySpaceTV include: LonelyGirl15, Sony (Minisode Network), NBA, NHL, The Producers Guild, National Geographic, The New York Times, Reuters, and lifestyle outlets including Animation Show, The Daily Reel, Expert Village, Flow, FOX’s IGN Entertainment, Kush TV, LX.TV, Octane TV, Ripe TV, Studio411, VBS.tv (from the makers of Vice Magazine), and Young Hollywood.