In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

A Larger Problem of Defamation at the Post

Jill

Like most New Yorkers, I can’t avoid the New York Post. It’s 50 cents, everyone reads it on the subway for mindless morning entertainment, and its gigantic glaring headlines are impossible to escape. It’s a city-wide (and sometimes nation-wide) joke. I studied journalism in college, and we were regularly warned that, while the Post is entertaining, we probably shouldn’t work there if we ever wanted a job at a reputable paper. The Post is notorious for teaching its reporters bad habits, for employing bottom-feeders, and for generally being a tabloid in the worst sense of the word.

It’s also generated some of the most ridiculous (and sometimes hilarious) headlines and front pages that I’ve ever seen. They latch onto bizarre stories and run with them. Among my lifetime favorites are STAB BABY, the weasel-heads, and the drama of a poor high school girl who tried to get her terrible photo pulled from her high school yearbook only to have the Post put in on their front page — two days in a row.

So whenever a story comes out about the terrible thing the Post did this week, I kind of have to just roll my eyes because, hey, it’s the Post. But for a lot of us, this was a final straw. After all, it came on the tail of lots of other racist, sexist, homophobic, ableist, sexist Sean Delonas cartoons. And while it’s all fine and good that Ruperth Murdoch issued an apology after the fact, it’s a pretty backhanded one from a paper that traffics in images and headlines like these (more here).

GLAAD is calling on supporters to write to Rupert Murdoch and the Post to stop bigotry and defamation on their pages. It is the Post so who knows how successful they’ll be, but it’s worth a shot:

Rupert Murdoch
Chairman and Chief Executive
News Corporation
1211 Avenue of Americas
8th Floor
NY, NY 10036
Phone: 212-852-7000 (Ask for Mr. Murdoch’s office)
E-Mail: rmurdoch@newscorp.com

And CC:

Teri Everett, Senior Vice President
Corporate Affairs & Communications
Phone: 212-852-7070
E-Mail: teverett@newscorp.com

Jack Horner, Director
Corporate Affairs & Communications
Phone: 212-852-7952
E-Mail: jhorner@newscorp.com

10 thoughts on A Larger Problem of Defamation at the <i>Post</i>

  2. Isn’t your average GLAAD member threatening to boycott the New York Post like me threatening to boycott the new Larry the Cable Guy five-DVD Japanese import bootleg boxed set comprised exclusively of fart jokes?

  4. Just to play devil’s advocate…..is there actual evidence of ‘defamation’ at the Post or are you using the term loosely? I don’t read the Post and haven’t heard of any lawsuits….

  6. And those aren’t even weasels; they’re ferrets. As in “ferreting out the truth”. Congrats, Post, you just subverted yourselves.

  7. The Times should be bankrupt soon.Maybe you could start a collection among Feministe readers to bnuy it.Be carefulo in the bidding though.It could easily go for 4 figures.

  9. The only thing ever funnier than the headlines are those sometimes hilarious Page 6 cartoons.

    The chimp cartoon wasn’t about Obama. One of the Post’s duds, it unsuccessfully suggests the stimulus law is so badly written, it must have been written by a crazy chimpanzee. Not very funny, but it’s not at all racist.

    That cartoonist is way over the top in terms of bad taste, but no other cartoonist would do the Post justice. The perpetually offended need to lighten up.

    This media assault on the Post over an obvious mistake in judgment rather than a deliberate racial slur is a despicable and dangerous attack on free speech in my opinion. Where the hell are the civil libertarians? Scared to come out lest they be called racist bigots too? I guess we are a nation of cowards after all. Good call Mr. Attorney General.

  10. I viewed the slideshow of Delonas’ cartoons via the GLAAD link. I haven’t seen cartoons that “humourous” since Der Stürmer ceased publication.

Comments are currently closed.