NFT: Satire or real? Two "Elf on a Shelf" stories...

We had an interesting discussion regarding the whole "Elf on a Shelf" game that parents will play during Christmas season. I saw two different stories this morning on the topic from two very different sources. Guess which one of the below quotes is from a satirical website and which is from a legitimate news source.

Quote:

STOCKHOLM — Speaking via Google Hangout to officials in Sweden last week, former NSA Contractor Edward Snowden dropped a bag of coal on his former employers by revealing the hugely popular “Elf on a Shelf” trend is actually an intelligence gathering operation originating with and run by the National Security Agency. “It actually started out as a joke,” Snowden said in his speech. “Someone photocopied a picture of an elf with the caption ‘I’m watching you,’ and it just kept moving from cubicle to cubicle.” Snowden said that at some point it occurred to someone that if people as paranoid as NSA staff would play this game, what would happen with civilians? “Now, the NSA has an agent inside practically every home with a child in it,” Snowden said. “The elves have basic mobility, which isn’t a problem because when one shows up someplace unexpected,” Snowden added, “it’s just assumed to be part of the game.” Through these adorable snoops, the NSA has gained access to millions of tax returns, bank statements, and 10-year old boys unwrapping and re-wrapping their presents in the days ahead of Christmas.

Exhibit1

Quote:

The Elf on the Shelf phenomenon has become part and parcel of the Christmas season. It works like this: A toy elf is positioned in various places throughout the home (or maybe just on a shelf) and the child is told that he or she is being watched by the creature, who will report to Santa Claus if the child has been naughty or nice. The child cannot interact with the elf – absolutely no touching -- or the elf’s “magic” will disappear. But a new academic paper challenges the notion that the Elf on the Shelf is, in fact, child’s play. The nature of Elf on the Shelf, which is based on a popular book, conditions a child to accept a surveillance state, says the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives paper titled “Who’s the Boss,” authored by Education professor Laura Pinto of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and Selena Nemorin, a research fellow at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. To say the least, critics, including many parents, are not too happy about a critique of the elf and what it stands for. But many Internet commenters are agreeing, with some drawing comparisons to a line from a popular Christmas song about Santa: "He knows when you are sleeping, he knows when you're awake." The social media chatter has not escaped Pinto, one of the paper's authors, who says, “What we’re hearing is that some parents are saying, ‘That doll creeps me out, and I don’t like it spying on us.’” When asked by HLN if this means the end of the Elf on the Shelf and its holiday fantasy narrative, Pinto chuckled. “We are not suggesting that no one can play with the elf, we’re saying that we have some big concerns about the rules of the elf,” Pinto told HLN. “The positive thing is that the elf is sparking some good conversation among parents."

Exhibit2

By the way, our Elf, Redd, was seen this morning tackling Eli Manning on our table in a mean game of football. Well, Redd was tackling my MacFarland Eli figure...and my daughter thought that was hilarious.