Hi, phawker (phawker). Larry Mendte (LarryMendte) is now following your updates on Twitter. Check out Larry Mendte’s profile here: http://twitter.com/LarryMendte You may follow Larry Mendte as well by clicking on the “follow” button. Best, Twitter PREVIOUSLY: Ex-Anchor Pleads Guilty To Email Hackery *** NEW FEATURE: Meet Jeff Tweeney Hey folks, Jeff Deeney here to let you know how this new Twitter project we’re rolling out will work. From now until Philadelphia no longer needs me for cannon fodder in the trenches of the War On Poverty, I will be posting the little overheard snippets of unintentional brilliance and frequently unhinged […]
PAPERBOY: Slow Jamming The Alt Weeklies
BY DAVE ALLEN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week, PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and steer […]
Congress Considers ‘Newspaper Revitalization Act’
REUTERS: With many U.S. newspapers struggling to survive, a Democratic senator on Tuesday introduced a bill to help them by allowing newspaper companies to restructure as nonprofits with a variety of tax breaks. “This may not be the optimal choice for some major newspapers or corporate media chains but it should be an option for many newspapers that are struggling to stay afloat,” said Senator Benjamin Cardin. A Cardin spokesman said the bill had yet to attract any co-sponsors, but had sparked plenty of interest within the media, which has seen plunging revenues and many journalist layoffs. Cardin’s Newspaper Revitalization […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Alejandro Junco de la Vega runs daily newspapers in three of Mexico’s largest cities: Reforma in Mexico City, Mural in Guadalajara and El Norte in Monterrey. Junco was born in Monterrey and earned his journalism degree from the University of Texas. He returned to Mexico to become the publisher of El Norte in 1973. Even at the beginning of his newspaper empire-building, Junco fought for freedom of the press — he hired a UT journalism professor to teach journalistic ethics and techniques to the reporters of El Norte. After El Norte became successful, Junco founded Reforma and Mural. […]
CONTEST: WTF Picture In Search Of A Caption
OK, admittedly it’s a slow news day — no new wars started by the U.S., no interstate killing sprees, no new arrest warrant for Lindsay Lohan. Frankly, this is the best we got: A motherfuckin bear riding in a taxi, presumably in Russia where bears enjoy something close to citizenship and circus celebrity status. So, until the next war/killing spree/Lohan arrest warrant comes along, what say we amuse ourselves with a caption contest? The prize? A sense of accomplishment, which is priceless if you think about it. OK, don’t think about it too hard. Here’s a few suggestions to get […]
CELEBUTARDS: Khloe Kardashian Has A Shiny Hiney
BUDDYTV: ??For the stars of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, living in the spotlight seems so easy. But it doesn’t exactly apply to all of them, as we find out how difficult it is to face pressure from the media when it comes to body image. We last saw the Kardashian family in a cold war, as Kourtney ignored momager Kris when she didn’t come to her first ever cover shoot. She thinks their mother is playing favorites, but it’s only a conflict in schedule that kept her from attending. On tomorrow’s episode, “I’d Rather Go Naked…Or Shopping,” Khloe deals […]
WEEK IN REVIEW: The Good News Flower Hour!
The Good News Flower Hour #14 The week that was in just five minutes, told by guest anchor/adorable-voiced rosebud Daisy Powers! Funny. Sad. Good for you. Just do it.
WHITER SHADE OF TRASH: Drunken Doggie Porn
THE SMOKING GUN: Meet Michelle Owen. Concerned that an ex-boyfriend had used her laptop to search for child pornography, the Indiana woman asked police to search the computer for illegal images, but had her plan backfire when cops discovered two videos of her engaged in illicit acts with a dog. Owen, 24, was charged last week with two felony bestiality counts in connection with the video files, which a detective found in the laptop’s “recycle bin.” At the time Owen asked cops to search the computer, she was locked up in the Johnson County Jail on a public intoxication charge […]
BEING THERE: The Good News Flower Hour!
The week that was in just five minutes, read by a stoned daisy that sounds just like me. Look for it every Friday. PREVIOUSLY: The Good News Flower Hour #13
PAPERBOY: Slow Jamming The Alt Weeklies
BY DAVE ALLEN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week, PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and steer […]
WORTH REPEATING: Journalism Will Survive The Death Of Its Institutions And Nothing Can Save Them
NEW YORKER: Journalism is, admittedly, a kind of accident of history. The big, confident, foreign-reporting, government- and corporation-investigating newsrooms of the period between 1960 and 2005—and the skills and standards they developed and disseminated—resulted from the confluence of quasi-monopolistic business models, the elevation of the scientific method in American society during the post-war period, and the cultures of professionalism that grew up simultaneously in the social sciences and practical professions (not just journalism, but law, accounting, economics, etc.). Professional journalism as we know it—independent investigations on behalf of the public; impartial witnessing of terrible events at home and abroad; independent […]
I, GAMER: Meet The Rape Simulator
EDITOR’S NOTE: I am old enough to have witnessed the birth of Pong and sorta lost the plot sometime around Defender, but I realize that lots and lots of young folk spend hours and hours playing games. Hours that could be better spent reading Phawker. Now there’s a way you can do both. Introducing our brand spanking new game column, I GAMER, penned by intern-to-the-stars Adam Bonanni. Adam is 21 and attends Temple University. BY ADAM BONANNI It’s embarrassingly easy to become so desensitized to violence and sexuality from gaming that it takes a real atomic bomb to start raising […]
NEW FEATURE: Meet Jeff Tweeney
Hey folks, Jeff Deeney here to let you know how this new Twitter project we’re rolling out will work. From now until Philadelphia no longer needs me for cannon fodder in the trenches of the War On Poverty, I will be posting the little overheard snippets of unintentional brilliance and frequently unhinged insanity that comprise the background noise of my work day. Think of it as Today I Saw for the ADD set; I will bring you the streets in 160 characters or less. All dialogue 100% overheard. You’re already a couple days behind, so start following the Phawker Twitter […]