In a "breaking news" story in The Onion this morning, the satirical newspaper reported Congress took a group of touring school kids hostage in the Capitol rotunda, demanding $12 trillion by 6 p.m. or they'll shoot a kid every hour. For once, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) are cooperating to reduce the deficit. Read More
“Happy 9/11, everybody!”
It was actually September 9, nearly ten years after the attacks, and comedian Nick DiPaolo was on stage at the Gotham Comedy Club, where he’d been headlining, taking a chance that with a decade’s distance audiences might finally be ready to laugh—not about the thousands of dead, of course, but maybe about our shared anxieties and the collective experience of living with tragedy and fear. Read More
It would seem America's satire newspaper-of-choice The Onion's recent campaign to receive a (presumably long and overdue) Pulitzer Prize—replete with press from the New York Times, a blog dedicated to the campaign, and co-signs from Arianna Huffingtonm, Tom Hanks, the President of Georgia, and Mario Batali, among others—is continuing to rage forward, 'rage' being the operative term in it. Read More
The Onion's new issue defuses any scattered murmurs of a Pixar backlash, by deploying "John Lasseter," the Toy Story director and chief creative officer at the studio, to "write" an op-ed. Lasseter mocks the undiscerning taste of his viewers -- he calls them a "horde of drooling morons" -- but the piece ends up Read More
NEW YORK-With polls showing him trailing in New York's Republican primary race for U.S. Senate, candidate David Malpass told reporters Friday he planned to accuse his opponent Bruce Blakeman of racism just to see if it caught on with anybody. "It couldn't hurt, Read More
Obama will host
Ray Kelly returns from jaunt in France. [NYP]
New York struggles to recover its public campaign funds. [NYT]
Long Island man with FDNY disabilities pension for diminished lung capacity does triathalons. [NYP]
Surfing show opens across three Manhattan galleries. [WWD]
Sonia Sotomayor spotted "scarfing burgers" in Read More
Last Monday night, Baratunde Thurston, "vigilante" political pundit, stand-up comic and Web editor for The Onion, was at New York Times City Room reporter Jennifer 8. Lee's Chelsea loft, watching the premiere of his new TV show, Popular Science's Future Of, which airs each Read More
When Conan O’Brien was tapped to host NBC’s Late Night in April 1993, UPI ran a 190-word story headlined “Unknown Comic Named to Replace [David] Letterman.”
Fans of the actual Unknown Comic, that groany staple of Chuck Barris’ Gong Show, were probably disappointed upon seeing the 6-foot-4, ginger-topped host. (That’s what he looks like under the Read More
The Webby Awards just announced their nominees for their 13th annual awards show. No surprise that NYTimes.com got 13 nominations, including the "Newspaper" category (The New York Observer was also nominated, along with the UK's The Guardian and The Independent). NBC.com and TheOnion.com also received multiple nods, Read More
By Tuesday afternoon, The Onion's ‘War For the White House Election Night Spectacular,' at Fontana's on the Lower East Side, was already sold out. Three hundred and fifty people were on the waiting list, and 800 others had been turned down.
As things got underway around 7 p.m. this evening, Onion features editor and Read More
As the Associated Press (here via CNN) reported yesterday, The Onion is going into comedic overdrive for Election Day:
To prepare for whatever happens Tuesday, the Onion has—like a real newspaper—organized coverage for either a McCain win or an Obama win. Both video and text stories have been completed for both eventualities.But who—besides America's Read More
Last week, a lot of people in the media were upset about Newsweek's un-retouched cover photograph of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.
The cover showed an extreme close up of Governor Palin's face, illustrating a critical appraisal of the candidate by Newsweek editor Jon Meacham in the magazine.
It prompted Portfolio's Mixed Read More
An important social and medical story was the centerpiece of a recent episode of Today Now!, which featured Cosmopolitan Magazine's "Lead Moan Zone Researcher" Dr. Rachel Steinberg announcing that after 120 years of research, the magazine had cataloged every possible way a woman can please her man. Dr. Steinberg claimed that she and her Read More
Is Wired better than The New York Times? According to this year's Webby Awards, when it comes to Best Copy/Writing, it sure is.
Wired.com beat out NYTimes.com (as well as Slate, Design Observer, and HowStuffWorks) in that category. NYTimes.com did win in the News and Newspaper categories. Fresh off Read More
