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Saturday, August 25, 2007

An era in journalism comes to an end
Posted by Jill | 8:08 AM
The last ever issue of the Weekly World News goes on sale this week:



It's easy to laugh at the Weekly World News, which was The Onion before The Onion was The Onion -- except it didn't know it. But while the WWN will live on via the internet, it just isn't the same as standing in line at the Shop-Rite looking at a cover screaming about killer babies on the loose, honeymoon couples attacked by goldfish, and how an astronomer has discovered that the core of Mars is composed entirely of milk chocolate.

Laugh if you must. But is it any different from MSNBC reporting for weeks on a bunch of guys who like to dress up as Ninjas and talk about taking down the Sears Tower and how this is a real terrorist threat; or the entire print and broadcast media buying the bullshit about Saddam Hussein's huge weapons stockpiles? Or for that matter, is it any different from the live, 24-hour coverage of Paris Hilton's release from prison, or Hillary Clinton's cleavage, or John Edwards' haircut? Or the rash of "news" stories that have appeared in the last few years to fill up the 24/7 news cycle over whether the Rapture is real?

Perhaps by suspending publication, WWN is doing us a favor. Without such obvious ridiculousness at the supermarket checkout line, more people might be able to look closely at the supermarket tabloidization of the news media they think they can trust.

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