3 ms·

> "bat boy" quality Was bat boy an invention of Weekly World News? If so, WWW was satirical, with intentionally bizarre made-up stories. People were supposed t

by the_af 3y ago

> "bat boy" quality Was bat boy an invention of Weekly World News? If so, WWW was satirical, with intentionally bizarre made-up stories. People were supposed to read it for the comedy, but I guess a version of Poe's Law applies and some people took it seriously. I remember one article of WWW claimed Saddam Hussein was hiding in a submarine in an American lake -- and I bet some people believed this. The Sun I imagine pretends to be a serious newspaper though.

glitchc 3y ago
> submarine in a lake Made me spill my coffee!
- the_af 3y ago
  Well, I couldn't find the submarine cover, but this will SHOCK you... the actual Iraqi weapons of mass destruction: https://weeklyworldnewsvault.tumblr.com/post/130026803238/cover-of-weekly-world-news-august-19-2003 https://weeklyworldnewsvault.tumblr.com/post/130026803238/co... Warning: that site has plenty more WWW covers, you may lose a good chunk of your time perusing them.
  - mdp2021 3y ago
    With the targeted aside: > Get your career diploma at home! Edit: made even more special after the subsequent one: > More hair!! Style it fast! With Wild Growth® Hair Oil
    - TedDoesntTalk 3y ago
      > Get your career diploma at home! Is it much different than getting a “diploma” drum prerecorded videos?
labrador 3y ago
I come from a poor working class area so believe me people didn't get the comedy. It was an early version of "muh space lasers started the Maui fire"
- labrador 3y ago
  I'm not saying all poor working class people are ignorant and gullible. I'm saying there's a minority who are uneducated and conspiratorial minded.
jeffwass 3y ago
I had some fun back in College in the 90’s cutting out articles from Weekly World News and tacking them to the bulletin board just outside the physics library. This board was full of cutouts of interesting real science articles, regularly thumbtacked by the librarians. One example WWW headline was something like “Scientists discover black hole the size of a head of a pin in the Nevada desert.”
kromem 3y ago
Actually, there was more to it than satire and comedy. WWN was made into what it was by the same guy as was behind the creation of the National Enquirer as a tabloid - Gene Pope. A graduate of MIT in just 3 years, when he bought up the Enquirer he'd been employed in the CIA's psychological warfare department immediately prior. This was in 1952, the same year the CIA and other military groups met to discuss the increase in UFO sightings (like the ones making front page news over Washington DC that same year), and started project Blue Book. Suddenly Gene Pope buys up a struggling periodical, turns it into a tabloid putting stories of UFO sightings next to sightings of Elvis being alive. This was expanded in 1979 to the WWN, where the paired stories became even more outrageous (Bat Boy). For decades the mere mention of UFOs was typically associated with tin foil hats, and was the result of a likely intentional domestic propaganda effort that took on legs of its own as successful tabloids in their own right.
- kimixa 3y ago
  To this day the term "UFO" tends to be related to "Alien Flying Saucers", rather than "Exaggerated reports of military testing", which seems to be the most related facts we know decades later.
- mc32 3y ago
  I think despite the bizarre and made up stories on occasion the national enquirer has actually dug up some good scoops. Not often… but it’s surprising! Here are some of the choicest scoops: https://www.ranker.com/list/national-enquirer-real-news/evan-lambert https://www.ranker.com/list/national-enquirer-real-news/evan... I think they also outed several celebrities over the years back when it was taboo.
- watersb 3y ago
  > This was in 1952... sightings of Elvis being alive. Remarkably, rumors of Elvis being alive persisted until 1977!
- ricksunny 3y ago
  Fascinating, and concerning in light of Grusch. Given this, (which I concur about just from my brief review of Pope & National Enquirer wikipedia articles), then I'd be interested in seeing a data science approach to quantifying proportion of UFO coverage in the Enquirer year by year since its founding, as well as some measure of 'outlandishness' across its entire coverage base over the same period. As a consumer in supermarkets, it's hard to overstate how powerful the effect of stifling rational interest in the UFO/ UAP topic is when one passes those tabloids in the checkout line every week, which contain any number of random claims in the headlines alongside presumably legitimate and illegitimate UFO-related coverage.

by the_af 3y ago

glitchc 3y ago

> submarine in a lake Made me spill my coffee!

the_af 3y ago
Well, I couldn't find the submarine cover, but this will SHOCK you... the actual Iraqi weapons of mass destruction: https://weeklyworldnewsvault.tumblr.com/post/130026803238/cover-of-weekly-world-news-august-19-2003 https://weeklyworldnewsvault.tumblr.com/post/130026803238/co... Warning: that site has plenty more WWW covers, you may lose a good chunk of your time perusing them.
- mdp2021 3y ago
  With the targeted aside: > Get your career diploma at home! Edit: made even more special after the subsequent one: > More hair!! Style it fast! With Wild Growth® Hair Oil
  - TedDoesntTalk 3y ago
    > Get your career diploma at home! Is it much different than getting a “diploma” drum prerecorded videos?

labrador 3y ago

I come from a poor working class area so believe me people didn't get the comedy. It was an early version of "muh space lasers started the Maui fire"

labrador 3y ago
I'm not saying all poor working class people are ignorant and gullible. I'm saying there's a minority who are uneducated and conspiratorial minded.

jeffwass 3y ago

I had some fun back in College in the 90’s cutting out articles from Weekly World News and tacking them to the bulletin board just outside the physics library. This board was full of cutouts of interesting real science articles, regularly thumbtacked by the librarians. One example WWW headline was something like “Scientists discover black hole the size of a head of a pin in the Nevada desert.”

kromem 3y ago

Actually, there was more to it than satire and comedy. WWN was made into what it was by the same guy as was behind the creation of the National Enquirer as a tabloid - Gene Pope. A graduate of MIT in just 3 years, when he bought up the Enquirer he'd been employed in the CIA's psychological warfare department immediately prior. This was in 1952, the same year the CIA and other military groups met to discuss the increase in UFO sightings (like the ones making front page news over Washington DC that same year), and started project Blue Book. Suddenly Gene Pope buys up a struggling periodical, turns it into a tabloid putting stories of UFO sightings next to sightings of Elvis being alive. This was expanded in 1979 to the WWN, where the paired stories became even more outrageous (Bat Boy). For decades the mere mention of UFOs was typically associated with tin foil hats, and was the result of a likely intentional domestic propaganda effort that took on legs of its own as successful tabloids in their own right.

kimixa 3y ago
To this day the term "UFO" tends to be related to "Alien Flying Saucers", rather than "Exaggerated reports of military testing", which seems to be the most related facts we know decades later.
mc32 3y ago
I think despite the bizarre and made up stories on occasion the national enquirer has actually dug up some good scoops. Not often… but it’s surprising! Here are some of the choicest scoops: https://www.ranker.com/list/national-enquirer-real-news/evan-lambert https://www.ranker.com/list/national-enquirer-real-news/evan... I think they also outed several celebrities over the years back when it was taboo.
watersb 3y ago
> This was in 1952... sightings of Elvis being alive. Remarkably, rumors of Elvis being alive persisted until 1977!
ricksunny 3y ago
Fascinating, and concerning in light of Grusch. Given this, (which I concur about just from my brief review of Pope & National Enquirer wikipedia articles), then I'd be interested in seeing a data science approach to quantifying proportion of UFO coverage in the Enquirer year by year since its founding, as well as some measure of 'outlandishness' across its entire coverage base over the same period. As a consumer in supermarkets, it's hard to overstate how powerful the effect of stifling rational interest in the UFO/ UAP topic is when one passes those tabloids in the checkout line every week, which contain any number of random claims in the headlines alongside presumably legitimate and illegitimate UFO-related coverage.