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Most people, if you dig down deep, go to the supermarket for tabloids, and not just the glossy celebrity magazines that have multiplied like gremlins in the last ten years. I mean real, honest-to-badness tabloids, the newspapers for which truth and responsibility and even reality are other people's hang-ups.

And now, the world is poorer, thanks to the news this week that American Media will cease publication of one of the great pieces of trash this country has ever produced: the Weekly World News. (Read more about it here and here.)


Published since 1979, the WWN has staunchly refused, for the most part, to tell us about Lindsay or Paris or Britney, instead opting for stories about aliens, Satan, giant pigs rampaging through the Georgia woods, Nostradamus-like prophets, time travel, and, of course, Bat Boy. In an increasingly frightening world, the Weekly World News provided regular -- you might even say weekly -- respite in the form of pedal-to-the-metal stupidity. It's too bad that WWN didn't break the story of its own demise, because then we would know that it wasn't true.

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More here.


 

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Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
 

 

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Posted by PSI Teleport (Member # 5545) on :
 
Aaauugh! It's the apocolypse!
 

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Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
 
Mom, I find it interesting that you refer to the World weekly news as "The Paper". "The Paper" contains facts.

"This paper contains facts. And this paper has the eighth highest circulation in the whole wide world. Right? Plenty of facts. "Pregnant man gives birth." That's a fact. "
 

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Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
 
I was toying with referencing that exact bit of dialog, pooka.
 

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Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
 
You know, Nostradamus predicted this.

Duh.
 

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Posted by sndrake (Member # 4941) on :
 
In case the reference in the thread title isn't clear, WWN describes (for the next week or two anyway) as "the World's only reliable newspaper."

This leaves a huge void in tabloid journalism. As others have noted (mostly on blogs), most tabloids are too preoccupied with covering Britney, Paris, and Lindsay -- they've abandoned the space aliens, lost track of Elvis, and Bigfoot could be extinct for all they care.

You'd think the tabloids might take this opportunity to get back to their roots - since *mainstream* media is devoting so much space to celebrity meltdowns and rumors, they should start providing the kind of news that you just can't get anywhere else.

Especially now that the WWN is history.


 

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Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
 
As the mother of a 10 year old, I can't tell you how relieved this actually makes me. I was there once myself.

"Mom, the last female bigfoot has been shot!"

"Oh, you suppose the went door to door to every bigfoot household to insure there are no females about?"
 

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Posted by PSI Teleport (Member # 5545) on :
 
"Bat Boy is father of Nicole's baby!"
 

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Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
 
All the science fiction mags are disappearing.
 

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Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
 


I'll miss it.
 

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Posted by brojack17 (Member # 9189) on :
 
Nnnooooooooo!!!!!!!
 

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Posted by Juxtapose (Member # 8837) on :
 
WWN was the only tabloid I ever liked. The world just got a bit dimmer.
 

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Posted by sndrake (Member # 4941) on :
 
Well, there is a little good news to report.

According to Reuters and other news sources, the WWN website will stay up, but I guess it's unlikely there will be new stuff going up on it:

quote:

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MIAMI (Reuters) - Publisher American Media Inc. said on Tuesday it will stop printing the Weekly World News, which for 28 years gleefully chronicled the exploits of alien babies, animal-human hybrids and dead celebrities.

The company said in a brief statement it would end the print version of the tabloid newspaper next month but would maintain the online version (www.weeklyworldnews.com).

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Won't make up for that hole - undoubtedly to be filled with even more celebrity coverage - in the supermarket checkout. But at least it's something.
 

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Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
 
The WWN filled a hole that needed filling.

"Bat Boy Found In Cave" is what I always think about when I think about WWN. That and Nostradamus.

I'm sad it's gone, I could always glance over at it when buying things at a convenience store. It was always good for a smile, sometimes even a snicker.


 

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Posted by The Reader (Member # 3636) on :
 
We'll always have The Onion, but it isn't the same.
 

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