I wonder if we can get Iowahawk to append his classic “Top Scientists Warn: Sea Gods Angry” headline from December of 2004 after the great moment in western civilization that occurred yesterday:
Meanwhile, Newsweek, having shed 41 percent of its readers last year at the newsstand, is determined to finish the job in short order:
“Black Helicopters Over Nashville — Never mind Sarah Palin and the tricornered hats. The tea-party movement is dominated by conspiracist kooks.”
Gee, a magazine that was busted for its Koran in the Can and “We Are all Socialists Now” fables, not to mention this memorable cover last year…
…Really isn’t in much of a position to complain about conspiracy theories.
Update: Welcome Insta-readers; the Professor (wait, can I still call him that?) also links to TheBlogProf (same question), who writes:
This is as idiotic as actor Danny Glover blaming the Haitian earthquake on global warming. And these people are pointing a finger at Palin for supposedly being dumb? Good. Grief. Glenn Reynolds says “this is exceptionally stupid even by The View’s admittedly low standards.” The Joy Behar Show is arguably even worse as far as standards go.
And remember, this is the show that CNN’s spin-off channel Headline News created to replace Glenn Beck. How’s that switch working out for Time-Warner-CNN?
“sea gods angry”
It’s hard to write parody that tops reality: Browsing the shelves of a local bookstore during the Clinton administration, I saw a book titled “Our Angry Earth”, a title that figuratively shouted “If you are an hysterical sophomore then this is the book for you, but if you are an intelligent adult then look elsewhere.”
A tail wail.
=====
If only Newsweak’s circulation were down 41%. Sales from newstands were down 41%.
Renminbi,
Good point. I fixed it above.
Thanks,
Ed
geez, how misogynistic can Behar and what’s-her-name be?
A lot of liberal newspaper and magazine people are like teenagers — they really believe they, or their publications, are invulnerable and will be around to publish their stories (and pay them for it) no matter how far they move towards advocacy journalism that appeals to a smaller and smaller segment of the population (and the corollary is that the higher ups in those organizations who do actually have to listen to the bean counters once in a while really aren’t any better, and were among those floating the idea last year of government-sponsored bailouts for dying publications).
It is not only newstand sales that are down, according to the New York Times, Newsweek has also cut _waay_ back on its rate base:
“Newsweek decided to stop the expensive pursuit of high circulation and focus on a smaller readership of higher-income people who appeal to advertisers. Many publications have made similar moves, but few have gone as far; Newsweek lowered its rate base, the minimum circulation promised to advertisers, from 3.1 million to 2.6 million in early 2008, then to 1.9 million in July. It will go to 1.5 million in January.”
The link is:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/16/business/media/16newsweek.html?_r=2&scp=2&sq=newsweek&st=cse
Sorry about the lame link, i never post on blogs.
So Ed was on firm ground in the first place and it might have been *more* accurate to say that Newsweek’s own figures show circulation is down over 50% in one year.
Er, whoops, should have said “is down over 50% in TWO years”.
Still, its a bellyflop of tremendous proportion.
Or maybe, they’re like Spinal Tap and their appeal is just getting ‘more selective’
The sheer idiocy of these comments by the likes of Joy Behar, combined with the middle school bully condescension and ridicule, are taken personally by the many millions of Americans for whom Sarah Palin has become a symbol. These media Cool Kids are revealing not only their bottomless personal ignorance and developmentally arrested pettiness (obsession about notes written on Palin’s hand, for example,)but they are also revealing their deep contempt for a major segment of the Americanb population. Their masks are entirely removed now, and millions more are seeing exactly what these people think of them. As they do, they see what is really behind “progressivism”: little thought, little knowledge, and lots of narcissims and condescension. Ultimately, this will be good, as people wake up to who is trying to steal the country.
Honestly, the fact that Sarah Palin makes these people so insanely unhappy is the best thing about her, imo. We have a smaller version of that here in Minnesota with Michelle Bachmann. The whiny, asinine liberals here hate her with such spittle-flecked insanity it makes me hope she’s in office for the next 40 years.
As for Behar and what’s-her-name and their scientific theories … next they’ll be claiming that their goat died because their neighbor gave it the evil eye.
Dear Eve & Joy, next time you decide to prove someone else is stupid, do yourselves a favor and lie down until the feeling passes.
“Against stupidity, the gods themselves are helpless.” Maybe the Professor –who does, after all, profess– could include these two benighted halfwits in his next seminar, the one that opens with “In the beginning, I…” (insert narcissistic drivel here).
Darwin asserts that dysfunctional organisms fail to reproduce their kind. On this “air causes earthquakes” basis, let’s hope that network TV trots out many more such deliquescing dolts.
That was a great pleasure to read.
Clicking on the “to finish the job” link above, and seeing the cover of a Newsweek describing Al Gore as “The Thinking Man’s Thinking Man,” had me laughing out loud. Insanely funny.
Joy Behar and Eve Ensler have as much intellectual depth as has all Ivy-Inbred Law Professors and uterus-obsessed GAY icon Andy Sullivan combined.
We can all Be Happy knowing our enslavement unto Serfdom is guided by such great royalty.