NY Press Editor Not Sacked for Unfunny Pope Gag
'N.Y. Press' Editor Quits in Wake of Pope Cover
If you see through the nasty Pope jokes, for instance, you will see a well-reasoned political argument. ... I did my best to show this battle to be one of free expression.By chance I saw this NY Press piece '52 funniest things about the pope dying' piece on the weekend. I'm certainly not a fan of the pope, but there was just nothing very funny about writing 52 remarks along the lines of '31. Pope rolls in his own urine'. I must have missed the razor-sharp politcal commentary - I just read a bunch of disgusting remarks that could be applied to the passing of almost any old person. I wouldn't have sacked the editor, but I don't think I would have solicited any more articles from writer Matt Taibbi. Actually the publisher denies that the editor was sacked for the '52 funniest' things piece, rather
...he vetted the Pope story before publication, and that the actual reason for the suspension stemmed from Koyen, against orders, running a parody of a New York Post cover (on the death of the Pope) on an inside page.Koyen resigned rather than accept the suspension.
- sheikh X at 5:19 PM
2 Comments:
As a lifelong critic of the Pope and the Church, I found it hard to conceive of a critique or cartoon, even one in bad taste, with which i wouldn't agree, sympathize, or take some small pleasure. That, at least, was true until I came across the New York Press article. This article was unfunny, mean-spirited, childish, and disrespectful. It was unworthy to make it onto a wall as grafiti in an unremarkable bathroom wall in the middle of nowhere. I found it remarkable in one respect--when reading it, I actually pitied the Pope and felt some sense of sympathy and kinship with him, as a human being, confronting his own mortality and illness.
As a lifelong critic of the Pope and the Church, I found it hard to conceive of a critique or cartoon, even one in bad taste, with which i wouldn't agree, sympathize, or take some small pleasure. That, at least, was true until I came across the New York Press article. This article was unfunny, mean-spirited, childish, and disrespectful. It was unworthy to make it as grafiti on an unremarkable bathroom wall in the middle of nowhere. I found it remarkable in one respect--when reading it, I actually pitied the Pope and felt some sense of sympathy and kinship with him, as a human being, confronting his own mortality and illness.
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