When Rupert Murdoch Buys NY Times


More than a hat tip to Tony Hendra and his gang for this hilarious new edition of “The Final Edition,” featuring “Mama Grizzly Bare–It’s President Palin in 2012: She Comes Out Swinging…” and “Roger Ailes: “Fuck it, I’ll just be President myself.”

Admittedly, the Palin illustration is tasteless. I think it’s gross and I don’t approve of it.

On the other hand, Sarah herself is tasteless. She’s gross and I don’t approve of her. But it’s not as bad as the photo of Anthony Weiner’s wiener that Breitbart leaked via right-wing radio today.

Sometimes you reap what you sow.

But forget Sarah for a while, and just enjoy The New Fox Times, which along with Christwire is the funniest thing on the web.

[Full disclosure: my son James, founder of McGinniss Associates, is the literary agent who developed and sold Christwire’s first book, to be published early next year by the Citadel division of Kensington. I have never met Tony Hendra.]

42 Responses to “When Rupert Murdoch Buys NY Times”

  • KiteGirl:

    I have said for a long time now – what do you get if you put 100 more pounds on Sarah Palin?
    A big fat nothing.
    For some people it IS all about the T & A, and we all know it.

  • Olivia:

    Sorry, I hate Palin and that Palin cartoon that you linked to is seriously not cool. Obviously, put together by a bunch of puerile boys that need to grow up. You discredit yourself by linking to it.

  • Polly:

    I agree with you Olivia. It is a tasteless cartoon of SP. But, you know what? It is probably the most honest cartoon of her.

  • I’m not a puerile boy, but it made me laugh. It captures Sarah’s essence.

  • Joe:

    Olivia:

    I agree, too, that it’s tasteless and gross. And I said so. But does that mean I should have refrained from linking to something that’s already all over the internet? In my previous post, I linked to SarahPAC, which I also think is tasteless and gross.

    As Polly suggests, Sarah brought this on herself by practicing politics as lap dance. She has demeaned women. Nobody would post an equivalent cartoon about Hillary Clinton or Michelle Bachmann. So this isn’t even about politics. Sarah has chosen to lead with her breasts, not her brain, which makes her fertile ground for satirists.

    Satire has always offended. Whether it’s cutting edge or puerile is in the eyes and ears of the beholder.
    Some people adored Lenny Bruce. Others wanted to lock him up.

    I’m sorry you think I discredited myself my linking to an illustration you found offensive. But I find Sarah herself far more offensive than this puerile cartoon.

    –Joe

  • One of her male fans, a vet, at Rolling Thunder told a reporter he would love to see Sarah in thongs and stilettos.
    I’m thinking her male fans are loving this cartoon.

  • Lisabeth:

    Amen!! That Christwire page is hysterical!!

  • Olivia:

    Sarah is offensive and dangerous, and that’s why if you want to be taken seriously, you write a well-researched, well-written book (which I’m hoping for — that’s why I read your blog), not link to offensive cartoons.

    And “But does that mean I should have refrained from linking to something that’s already all over the internet?” is wrong-headed. Should everyone link to the cell phone picture of Anthony Weiner’s erect penis just because it’s now out there on the Internet, thanks to Andrew Breitbart? Does it depend on how you feel about Anthony Weiner’s politics? Some things are just wrong and cheapen public discourse.

  • Joe:

    Olivia:

    Actually, I’ve been taken seriously since I started writing a newspaper column in Philadelphia in 1966, and nationally, since “The Selling of The President” was published in 1969. THE ROGUE is, I guarantee you, well-researched, and, I hope, also well-written. At least written to the best of my ability.

    If the cartoon offended you that much–and I don’t mean this to be snide–get in touch with Tony Hendra, who published it, and tell him so. And if SarahPAC or Conservatives4Palin offend you, please tell them so.

    The photo of impoverished refugees in Darfur that I published yesterday actually offended me much more than the cartoon, but, as I say, it’s all in the eye of the beholder.

    As for cheapening public discourse: Sarah Palin has been doing it since she ran for mayor of Wasilla in 1996, and on a national scale since 2008.

    Please don’t blame me for that.

    –Joe

  • AKPetMom:

    There are some women that will always take offense at any perceived slight towards feminine characteristics, even if the purveyor of said characteristics uses them to her advantage. There are feminists groups that will support the actions of anything with a uterus, just because it is female. This group of females needs to step back and judge a person based on character and not genitalia.

  • chris maguire:

    true, one reaps what one sows……

  • Older_Wiser:

    Anyone who’s honest about Quitler will admit that she uses sex to sell herself–has done so since she entered politics and made a point to wear pushup bras to Wasilla city council mtgs. She cemented her MILF status onstage at the Republican National Convention by stroking Levi Johnston’s face. http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/your-doubting-thomas/levi-johnston.jpg

    Flaunted her “fertility” by faking a pregnancy, too. http://politicalgates.blogspot.com/

    She’s an attention whore and puts herself out there. She sure as hell is getting attention, too–the good, the bad and the ugly.

  • tom:

    the cartoon IS what palin is all about.

    you people who claim to be offended by palin make me laugh when you really dont have a clue as to what this woman really is all about.
    you believe some imaginary line must never be crossed even when it informs and explains.

    well guess what?, palin and her type have no such lines and they seek gain at your expense while you are recovering from the “horrors” of that self serving badge of honer you pin on to show off…..what exactly??

  • Heidi3:

    I think it’s funnier than hell! Sarah might not be too happy about the depiction of her “Runner’s World” legs, though.

  • themom:

    I suppose that would be better than seeing her in the Whte House.

  • karenw729:

    I think the cartoon is silly and juvenile, but I’m not necessarily offended by it as $arah has morally pimped herself out for fame and fortune. However, this cartoon is just another one of those things that gives her ammunition. Now she can point to that and proclaim herself a victim yet again, and have a legitimate reason for doing so. I just don’t like to add fuel to her fire, that is all.

  • lilly lily:

    that is Sarah with an extra 50 lbs on her. It does burn ones eyeballs.

    Sure its tasteless, but look at her photos as seen on Google. Her panty sniffer fans photoshop her non existant breasts into 40 TripleDDD with deep cleavage. No one bitches. I have seen similar things on blogs. Along with her fans portrayal as a guardian angel hovering over children. Or as a skin bikini clad Raquel Welch suffering on a cross. Pretty gross stuff as I see it. She is no guardian angel and she sure isn’t a female Jesus.

    Considering her use of water bras, or whatever she uses now and then (Saratoga, in Boston), thrusting her prefab extra sized breasts out like Jayne Mansfield, and her use of tongue licking, open mouthed, sexual dog whistles this simply goes one step further than she dares.

  • akvoter:

    The cartoon isn’t nearly as disgusting as $P herself. The TP’s sweetheart is selling herself, just as surely as this cartoon suggests. She has discredited not only herself, she has discredited the people and state of Alaska and now she’s working on discrediting the U.S. I am so proud of Sen. Mark Begich and his comments of earlier this week regarding $P and how he (and Murkowski) don’t take advice from somebody who has quit Alaska and its people. Waiting ever so impatiently for this bimbo to fade into the AZ desert!

  • msf:

    Oh for God’s sake….the cartoon is funny & truly captures what Palin is all about. I’ll be bookmarking those sites. Thanks for my first laugh of the day. I’ve mentioned that humor might be our best weapon against Palin. Stewart & Colbert can’t do it all.

  • For God’s sake, it’s just a cartoon! I’m a female and not offended in the least because as a female I can see how she uses her sexuality to manipulate the men. She can be coy and cutesy when asked a question she can’t answer intelligently…you don’t see this behavior in the men.

  • True Blue Girl:

    The cartoon would indeed capture the essence of the Sarah Palin brand if only we could add the soundtrack of her shrill stupidity and venom, and add a scent feature with a horrible stink of something rotten

  • True Blue Girl:

    and maybe some cowbell

  • SusanC:

    The cartoon is vulgar, true. But I think it accurately represents the fantasies of a lot of Palin’s male admirers.

  • lilly lily:

    I watched her new promotional money grubbing take on her trip to educate America. A fake patiot. All self promotion, using everything and everybody to promote herself as a PATRIOT educating America. Primary school children know more than she does.

    Certainly she isn’t smarter than a 5th grader.

    The words on the placard some New Yorker plastered on her bus tell it all as it is…” I the Media Whore.”

    She is a that and so much more.

    All Propaganda, Like Leni R’s “Triumph of the Will.”

  • KiteGirl:

    Right on, AKPetMom.
    Thanks, Joe, for this good discussion point.
    Sarah is all about the sex appeal – winking, FMP’s, tight skirts, blow-up breasts, and her constant tongue thrusting. Star bursts, don’t cha know it?

  • KB2:

    The cartoon portays only what Sarah Palin really is: a prostitute who sells herself for power and riches. I’m female, an old one at that, and I’m not offended in the least by this cartoon, because it reflects the truth about the whore and her M.O. She sells sex, plain and simple, and I’ve known this since the first time I saw and/or watched her in 2008, at the Republican Convention and on the campaign trail with old man McCain (whom I will never forgive for foisting this disaster on our country). Thanks Joe for your courage in posting this.

  • FrostyAK:

    Some are offended by the truth. Does that mean that truth should not be exposed? $palin is a whore on so many different levels…

    Does that hurt women in general? Did whorehouses over the centuries cheapen women in general? I think not. Got your panties in a twist over a cartoon? Ask yourself why.

  • lilly lily:

    Ditto here. Winking on stage, working the guys like Hannity or the women like van Susteran who slobber over her.

    . We older females lived in a time when there was a clearer division of whore and madonna. You played a game like Palin does at your own risk for being terribly misunderstood if you indeed weren’t out for sex. There was a name for women like her and it isn’t pretty. C*ck teaser. Plain words, and that is what the woman is. Nowadays it has become more prevelant and woman can get away with it without much payback.

    Palin is trying to have it both ways. Cutesy Pootsy flirt all the way from inflated bosom to peeka boo look at me. No harm in that if that is what you are. She wants to be a sex pot? Fine by me.

    But a President who flirts?

    Come on.

  • lilly lily:

    It seems Palin is going to get hammered everywhere about everything, by a heck of a lot of people.

    Mother Jones will hop on the E-mail.

    A multi- team of people are being vetted to a degree by another group who will work in teams to analyze the E-Mails the state is allowing through the seive.

    Sarah’s cult feeds her ego, but eventually the onslaught will break her down, in spite of medications which she obviously resorts to using on a regular basis. She is too erratic and mentally disturbed to keep functioning, eventually she will crack.. Perhaps it is.the actual time for her unmasking, It is time for her to be tossed into the garbage heap of political dunces and liars and crooks for posterity.

    Palin is ridiculous and has set women back. Not that young women appreciate what was accomplished, but Sarah was at the forefront of taking advantage of all the gains for herself, while trying to destroy those gains for other women.

    I’m not a feminist. I did just fine myself under the older rules for women. I was never a victim. But Sarah breaks the liberal rules of our day, and screams victim time after time.

    Being a MILF isn’t any reason to vote for a female who exploits female power while destroying female rights.

  • Sir Guestalot:

    “Gotta have more cowbell!”

  • I am not offended by the animated cartoon of Sarah P. Yes, it is somewhat vulgar, but let’s face it… it is a perfect cartoony description of who she is and what she does and how she does it. (Except for the fact that her boobs would not be that large in real life…)

    As a woman, what offends me is her persona — the one that stereotypes women as sex objects and says that even if they’re dumb (idiots? asses?) it’s okay to like them and even vote for them. The very high heels. The nylons. The pencil skirts. The augmented brassieres. The flashing smiles with whitened straightened teeth. The eyelash extenders, the eyebrow pencils, the plastic surgery, the tatoo’d lip outline, the ridiculous hair piles, the ostentatious religious-symbol jewelry, the winks and always, always, the open-mouthed smiles with occasional tongue protrusions. It all screams sex with a touch of religious pandering tossed in.

    Women can be smart, wise even, and wholesome and effective in whatever field they choose. Sarah P. does not further that vision at all.

  • Olivia:

    I don’t know who that Olivia is who complained above but this Olivia(me) thinks it is totally tasteless and completely hilarious. I am not offended at all and I may even post it on my FB page. Anyone who flaunts themselves as a sex object the way Palin does, deserves this kind of caricature. BRAVO!

  • Olivia:

    Quitler!! Perfect name for her!

  • omomma:

    I do have one quibble with the WBE cartoon: it could be improved by showing the shoes to be 2 or 3 sizes too big. Other than that, it’s the perfect representation of her “campaign platform.”

  • Olivia:

    Absolutely! The oversize shoes would have been perfect.

  • Bretta:

    What do you get if you put 100 more pounds on Sarah Palin?

    Rebecca Mansour with no brains who cannot speak English.

    Prove me wrong.

  • Bretta:

    Agreed.

    And if we complain how that behavior demeans women, we are told we are just jealous – that we’re ugly.

    I am neither ugly nor jealous and I find publishing a true caricature of the grisly grifter refreshing.

    I am sooo tired of how much she gets away with – morally and ethically – she always gets a pass.

    It is unfathomable.

  • ForeverAnonymous:

    oh please, did you see what i saw? All I saw was an unappealing half naked, boob sagging cartoon depicting Sarah Palin(I have to still capitalize for the spelling check) in her metaphorical attempt to have the feeble minded folks carry her to materialized her thirst for power so, in the name of Jesus, she can, reprehensibly, do away with men balls and women rights.

    In her dreams.

    Not in this life.

  • An Outhouse:

    Is Christwire real? It reminds me of whitehouse.org during the Bush years.

  • KiteGirl:

    Mee, too, Bretta! When I make the comment “What do you get when you put 100 more pounds on Sarah . . ” I usually get the comments “YOU must be really fat, and “You are just jealous”.
    And never forget the title Sarah bestowed upon people who dare question anything: “Hater”.
    I would never want to go through life with so little intellectual . . . curiosity and wherewithall as Sarah Palin.
    She is a sad mother and a sad human being. No wonder she is so unhappy and vindictive.

  • deennaa:

    Uh, Olivia? Which planet have you been living on? This woman palin is obscene and beyond, to resemble being pornographic. If she hadn’t ARBITRARILY picked politics as her venue to thrust herself into a political scenario, the chances would be high that she would be doing porn and being proud of it! Haven’t you ever noticed her body language? There are photo’s of her standing with her legs apart engaging in conversation’s with males. To those who study body language, this says she is putting out a subliminal sexual come on. I could put it much cruder but I think you get the idea. Anybody with EYES TO SEE can pick up on this. What truly caring mother would ever say to her own daughter that the daughter’s boyfriends were “cute” or “hot” (paraphrasing the pubic comment) and say it in the context of the mother acting like a “friend” to her daughter and not in the context of being the MOTHER? THAT is inappropriate. Sarah palin has done that. Palin DELIBERATELY put herself forward in overt and subliminal sexual ways. Mostly overt. Too numerous to list and mostly already listed. Your sense of “offended-ness” is skewered. And its self-righteous. If you believe yourself to be intelligent, then be damned offended that she’s lowered your status as a woman to the dirt. She’s done it without your permission! Aren’t you offended? Take a REAL look at what is right before your eyes. If you can’t even be offended by how she pimps out her daughters, something is seriously wrong with your judgment ability. Satire is satire. With her fake “christianity”, I would bet she likes that cartoon!

    Another important thing: You truly show a bonafide ignorance tinged with “know-it-all” overtones when you LECTURE Mr. McGinniss (“…and that’s why if you want to be taken seriously…”) about his writing “well researched, well written” book. Are you just crazy? He is well known and one of the best writer’s in your american nation. You need some serious thinking pills. Really.

  • You could certainly see your enthusiasm in the work you write. The world hopes for more passionate writers like you who aren’t afraid to say how they believe. Always go after your heart.