OK, not really. But the nation’s silliest newspaper (and that’s saying a lot) is going out of business.
Sniff!
I know, it’s all a big joke, and a lot of folks think that anyone who takes it seriously maybe deserves what they get. And I can’t really fault the Weekly World News if some bonehead at Yahoo News picks up one of their more ridiculous stories and posts it as straight news, thus starting a minor internet scare that the world is coming to an end.
Come to think of it, I can’t hold the WWN at fault at all, any more than I would fault the Onion when some goober takes them seriously as well.
Dumbosity will happen no matter what. At least the WWN didn’t take themselves seriously, like the NYT and the Washington Post do… and the WWN was accurate at least as often as those two publications have been lately.
July 22nd, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Oh the horrors!!! Where oh where will I get my truthful news when standing in line at the grocery store??!!
I used to love reading that, just for the obviously silly and stupid junk that was in it. Obviously doctored photos, incredulous stories, etc.
Ah, the gold old days.
July 22nd, 2007 at 12:57 pm
[...] Link to Article yahoo Weekly World News Abducted By Aliens! » Posted at Bad Astronomy Blog on [...]
July 22nd, 2007 at 1:24 pm
I see the subscription page is still taking a year’s subscription. Though at the top of the page they say it costs only 1.15 cents an issue but when you go to pay it is $1.15 an issue — more if you take a shorter subscription. Typo or intentional?
I didn’t actually subscribe to see what would happen.
July 22nd, 2007 at 1:42 pm
Oh how sad, I get such a laugh each week at the supermarket! I loved so many of their headlines, but my favorites are “47 Senators are Space Aliens” (ONLY 47 ?????) “Titanic Survivors found alive on ice berg” and the priceless picture of Saddam and Osama dancing together in ballet costumes.
What a loss WWN will be!
July 22nd, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Woah, new style to the blog BA, or just my browser gone wrong?
July 22nd, 2007 at 2:45 pm
Yikes! That was the most surreal reload I’ve ever done!
July 22nd, 2007 at 2:47 pm
Woaaah Phil, what a mess you made….
July 22nd, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Oh my how will I ever get my updates on the life of Batboy? How will I know who the “grays” are supporting this election cycle? And lets not forget the latest from Nostradamus’s latest predicitions from beyond the grave.
I for one blame the internets!! Dang computers taking over the world means I will have to hunt through many websites to get the same info as I could have gotten with the single purchase of the WWN. Things just won’t be the same.
July 22nd, 2007 at 3:12 pm
Aww, man, that was my favorite paper! What will happen to Batboy? How will we ever know which congressmen are aliens? And what about the page 3 girl?
July 22nd, 2007 at 4:06 pm
Speaking of the Onion, here’s a priceless little gem from one of their stories about a year ago, titled: “Kansas Outlaws Practice Of Evolution”:
This is the 4th-to-last paragraph (I know it’s satire, but it’s just SOOOO accurate a summation of the creo’s POV):
“If Earth’s species were meant to change over successive generations through physical modifications resulting from the adaptation to environmental challenges, then God would have given them the genetic predisposition to select mates and reproduce based on their favorable heritable traits and their ability to thrive under changing conditions so that these advantageous qualities would be passed down and eventually encoded into the DNA of each generation of offspring,” Olathe public school teacher and creationist Joyce Eckhardt said. “It’s just not natural.”
July 22nd, 2007 at 4:08 pm
I, too, miss the tales of the Batboy!
July 22nd, 2007 at 4:13 pm
Ah, guess I’ll now be stuck with the Onion for Serious News,,,and, of course, Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert,,,
Then, for that light hearted touch, the BABlog.
GAry 7
PS: Like the new layout. Easy on my old guy eyes,,,
July 22nd, 2007 at 4:48 pm
Of course we are still able to get silly news from other, more respected news outlets, like AP. In their story about the release of the newest, and final Harry Potter book we find this priceless gem:
“No other book, not even any of the six previous Potters, has been so desired, so quickly. “Deathly Hallows” averaged more than 300,000 copies in sales per hour — more than 50,000 a minute.”
Quick, can anybody find the minor math error in that quote?
July 22nd, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Nooooes! Now how am I going to embarass my girlfriend when standing in the checkout line?
And I guess that’s what their problem is: very few people actually buy it, but instead simply flip through it in line. Though I suspect the budget for Photoshopping, uh, er, I mean, exclusive rights to unique photos, is pretty high.
I always had to admire their standards of excellence, though. While I made it a point to see how many details could be gotten wrong in just about every newspaper article I read, regardless of source or reputation, the WWN’s policy was to ensure that no inaccuracy, no matter how large, ever got censored. Integrity.
I am quite sure that Brangelina will not be able to replace Batquatch, and we are all poorer for it. Look up at the clouds today and sigh, for there are no more Elvises there.
July 22nd, 2007 at 7:03 pm
OH no! All of those times at the supermarket I should have ~bought~ it instead of scanning the headlines for my belly-laugh of the day. Bummer
July 22nd, 2007 at 9:06 pm
Seargent Zim, either the original figure is missing a zero or whoever did that math divided 300,000 by 6 instead of 60.
Weekly World News has been getting more and more difficult to find. If it is disappearing completely I am sorry to see it go. The antics of Bat Boy and who the Greys are supporting in elections are a lot more interesting than the celebrity tabloids and idiotic magazines that usually clutter up the checkout line.
July 23rd, 2007 at 1:39 am
BUMMER!!!
I had my locker covered with great headlines: Now what?
World War II Bomber Found On Moon!
Woman Gives Birth To Fish!
Trumpet Player’s Head Explodes!
Oil Rig Drills Hole Into Hell!
Oh well…
July 23rd, 2007 at 4:16 am
The Onion is a more reliable news source than Fox. I don’t understand why you threw them overboard. ???
July 23rd, 2007 at 9:52 am
Is tghere any reason why old WWN’s couldn’t be recycled? Stories of the batboy and the devil’s face above 9/11 are as true now as when they were first published.
July 23rd, 2007 at 9:58 am
Is there any reason why old WWN’s couldn’t be recycled? Stories of the batboy and the devil’s face above 9/11 are as true now as when they were first published.
July 23rd, 2007 at 3:01 pm
I have a couple fond memories. Once bought a couple during my early teens to just dissect in detail. One thing I commonly brought up with the alien stories: Why would so many species be so obsessed with our little dirt ball?
July 23rd, 2007 at 6:42 pm
Weirdly Werrled Noise is not the only Tab that publishes bizzar junk