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.
[Ben Greenman's acclaimed new book of fiction, A Circle is a Balloon and Compass Both, is now available. Order it here.]
Reader Comments ( Page 12 of 12)
166. I got custody of my son the summer before he entered the 8th grade, and that's when I saw he couldn't read past the 2nd grade. Nothing I would do to help did anything but hurt his pride. One day we went shopping and he saw the WWN and he was curious about the cover picture. I bought it and read it to him front to back. All summer long, every week, we read the WWN, and by the end of the summer he could read at the 8th grade level! Aliens? No. We just found his point of interest. Thank you, Weekly World News! Brian's Dad
Jim at 3:34PM on Jul 29th 2007
167. My favorite was "Bigfoot Adopts Human Child." Which was surprising when you consider that affluent, middle class couples with well paying jobs and good credentials often have difficulty doing so. I would love to have sat in on Mr. B. Foot's interview with the adoption agency.
Richie at 8:52PM on Aug 6th 2007
168. I found a very very old issue in the trunk of a 1963 chevy, "Scientist build time machine, goes back in time and photographs the face of Jesus" This story changed my life and I am still searching for the info on that time travel machine.
bobby at 10:43AM on Jul 30th 2007
169. I'm very sorry to hear about WWN folding. Years ago when my son was having problems reading. I noticed theW WWN always caught his attention. On a whim, I bought a copy and left it out for him to see. He read it cover to cover. I started to buy a copy every week. Needless to say, now my son is a voracious reader, and stopped reading WWN years ago, but we still had fun every now and than reading about Bat Boy,(Bat Boy used to be my son's nickname for a time) Ed Anger, and the advice column chick (I forget her name.) We will miss it!
YLG at 12:37PM on Jul 30th 2007
170. Sad news. I was one of the translators for Czech version of WWN (called "Hrom") and working for WWN was a big part of my college/grad life: it paid my bills, it taught me a lot of common English and I had a blast translating (and often modifying) the stories. It was long time ago, but it's sad to see them go.
Scarecrow at 8:02PM on Aug 7th 2007