A term for the period in the year where the media/press (
particularly newspapers, tabloids) do not have enough articles to fill the paper/schedule, and so resort to unverifiable, trivial,
irrelevant, stupid or hoax stories. Phrase used
particularly in British satire.
When reading a newspaper: "'Buckingham Palace corridors are fitted with
traffic lights to stop staff bumping into the Queen?' Must be silly season again."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4198990.stm
Examples of silly season stories:
"
Senator John Kerry once rescued a hamster from the sea and massaged it
back to life"
"Bebo tries to beam messages to Earth-like planet"
"A rabbit started a fire at Devizes cricket club in Wiltshire, causing more than £50,000 damage"
"A woman has bequeathed to her children a piece of fruit that has been in her family since 1921"