Latest / Journey to the Fringe / When Fake News Was Fun News: Weekly World News P1

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When Fake News Was Fun News: Weekly World News P1 · Journey to the Fringe

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From the unexplained to the mundane, come join
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us on a Journey to the Fringe. Hello and welcome
0:16
to Journey to the Fringe, where sometimes we
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follow up very vaguely on old episodes that we
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do and Chelsea. Turns out he went to Bahrain
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to become an oil intermediary. Yeah, yeah, he
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had no job prospects and he had just been disgraced.
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So it's like I'm gonna get into the oil business
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Oh fuck. Are you serious? Yeah, I knew that sounded
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vaguely familiar. It didn't go well What a jackass
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yeah Anyhow, we are your podcast host Taylor
0:49
and Chelsea. Here today, apparently doing a two
0:51
parter on something. That's all I know. And it
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starts off on a bright note for some that follow
0:56
us regularly. Anyhow, I'll let Chelsea take it
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from here. This week, I'm covering an asshole
1:02
of a totally unheard of different kind for this
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podcast. More of a fun, lovable asshole. And
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I know with this sentence, your mind must just
1:14
be reeling. Wondering what kind of asshole I'm
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covering Taylor, right? Well, I would assume
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it's a British Andy episode. You would assume
1:24
based on that intro. Yeah. I think that's what
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you were assuming. I'm going to be hitting you
1:31
with some cold hard facts this week as I cover
1:35
a leader in tabloid journalism that will undoubtedly
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give you a heavy dose of nostalgia. And the question
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is not. Who is the asshole? But what is this
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asshole? As we take a look into the enchanted,
1:50
wonderful world of the Weekly World News. There
2:01
was some sort of weird synchronicity and can
2:03
I just ask you please to give me the facts in
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like a warm, soft style? I don't, I just feel
2:11
like that's gonna feel better. I don't know,
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but I don't want to be hit by cold heart. I want
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soft and warm. Okay, warm, soft facts. Yeah.
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Okay. Okay. Well, here's the first warm, soft
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act. The Weekly World News launched in 1979 by
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Generoso Pope Jr. How's that name for you? Do
2:31
you like it? I was not expecting it to go the
2:34
way it did after Generoso. Like every word after
2:39
that is a surprise. There's only two. I know.
2:41
It just kept going too. Undoubtedly, one of the
2:44
strongest names I think I'll ever hear in my
2:46
life. He founded not only the Weekly World News,
2:51
he also founded the National Enquirer, go figure.
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No way. I know, right? And you've never heard
2:57
of Generoso Pope Junior? No. You would think
3:00
he would be a common household name. The magazine
3:03
represented the extremes of checkout counter
3:07
attention -grabbing tactics for nearly 30 years,
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renowned for its outlandish cover stories often
3:14
based on supernatural or paranormal themes and
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an approach to news that teetered on the satirical.
3:21
I remember it from the checkout lines growing
3:23
up and there was only something going on with
3:26
Batboy. I totally remember seeing these going
3:28
to the grocery store as a kid. I don't know that
3:31
I actually ever picked one up and looked at it
3:34
and do you ever remember seeing it outside of
3:37
the grocery store never not well sorry there
3:40
i remember it distinctly in the movie so i married
3:44
an axe murderer yes the mom yes that's where
3:48
the axe murder story comes from See that was
3:51
my only reference and I'm thinking like did I
3:54
ever go to someone's house and like see it in
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their pile of newspapers or anything? Never once.
4:00
It is very nostalgic to think back that people
4:02
did in fact used to have magazine stacks. Yep
4:04
they sure did. You do not see those anymore.
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You really don't and it's very sad when I look
4:10
back that I don't even think I grabbed one and
4:12
now that I'm old enough to go to the grocery
4:15
store and do my own shopping I don't remember
4:17
the demise of it. I don't have a hard memory.
4:20
of going to the grocery store and being like,
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oh, that's not there anymore. I would welcome
4:25
seeing one of these at the grocery store checkout
4:27
now. Yeah. And just, if you guys ever feel nostalgic
4:30
for it and you want to do it the cheap way, I
4:32
am just going to give you this life hack. Your
4:34
local library has basically a subscription to
4:37
every magazine you could want. So just go get
4:39
a copy there. Nice. I do know that my library
4:42
has them. You're not allowed to check them out
4:44
though. And I just don't feel like going that
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weekly world news is definitely not something
4:48
they have. So you see that, but I don't know
4:51
if you ever looked. I have looked. Oh, okay.
4:54
Definitely no weekly world news. Was that part
4:56
of your research for this episode? Yes. Okay.
4:59
No, I've looked at the magazines. I would know
5:02
the weekly world news is there. Do you like recall
5:05
when you stopped seeing them? No, it might just
5:09
be when we stop shopping with our parents. I
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feel like there's a large gap in time where I
5:16
was just not at grocery stores. I don't know
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what I was doing in life at that point but I
5:21
feel like there's a young version of myself where
5:25
I was just not at grocery stores. Basically when
5:27
we reached adulthood was the introduction of
5:30
the self checkout and there is not magazines
5:32
in the self checkout line. That's true. And for
5:35
a long time, I did the self checkout line because
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I was without child and cares and worries and
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I was looking to be expedient. Yes. Yeah. OK.
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And you're dealing with life's ethical issues
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of I can't find the specific barcode. Maybe I
5:50
just pretend it's a different apple that's 50
5:52
cents less per pound. But I could go to jail.
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So. In my memory, I don't have a specific one
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where I'm like, huh, it's not there any longer.
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And I do go to the regular checkouts now because
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I have to have a fairly large grocery shop and
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I can't say. I remember seeing the weekly world
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news there. I definitely remember seeing like
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the National Enquirer or things along that. Oh,
6:15
everything there. Those are still there. Yeah.
6:17
There's totally nothing I actually want to pick
6:19
up and take a look through. Not at all. Celebrity
6:22
gossip. Not bad boy. Not bad boy. Oh, I would
6:24
be all over bad boy if bad boy was there. And
6:28
I probably would pick up a copy. I'm not going
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to lie. I would be the person that would have
6:33
a copy of that magazine if I was old enough.
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Though I don't remember. when I was a kid being
6:39
like compelled enough to be like can you buy
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this for me? No, even as a kid I was barely certain
6:45
it was fake. Yeah, oh yeah. And as interested
6:50
as I always was in the paranormal I never really
6:53
wanted a weekly world news. It's all very interesting
6:56
psychological stuff. Anyhow, it was reporting
7:00
mostly fictional news. stories in the United
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States from 1979 to 2007. To be fair, how is
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that different from any of the assholes that
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we've covered? No, it's true. And it is mostly
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fictional news that most of the assholes are
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covering as well. Yeah, they just think they
7:18
can tell when it's fictional and you don't need
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to know. Yeah. So as I was saying, this is in
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the time that I wouldn't have been accompanying
7:27
my parents on grocery trips where it falls off
7:30
the map and you're not seeing it in grocery stores
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anymore into my young adulthood where I'm also
7:35
not frequenting grocery stores. In the 2000s,
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the circulation of the weekly world news peaked
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at 1 .2 million per issue, which is pretty good
7:45
for... That is really good for just making the
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shit up as you go. Yeah. We'll get into exactly
7:51
what was going into it, but it's pretty high.
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especially for me, like not having anyone in
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particular where we can place having bought one
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of these. And Chelsea, I don't know if this was
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part of your research, but I am curious. Do you
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know how much it costs an issue? I really don't.
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Like the times I remember seeing it. Currency
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was not something I really valued. No, and I
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don't know it wasn't a part of my research But
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I would put it on par for probably it was probably
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the same price as most magazines, right? No,
8:22
I would or do you think it's cheap? This is just
8:24
me speculating. It was published entirely in
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black and white So it was probably just higher
8:31
than a newspaper I don't know that I would put
8:34
it as high as an like a people magazine or something
8:37
like that But I could be wrong When I look at
8:40
magazines now, highly unaffordable to my overall
8:43
budget. Magazines back in the day were like three
8:46
or four bucks or something. And I know that because
8:49
I bought like J -14. Why? What was it? Why something?
8:54
I don't know. I used to buy GQ because I thought
8:56
it was incredibly suave and cool and fashion
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forward as a as a young man. Mine's more teenage
9:05
girls. I used to buy Mads and Cracks too. Why
9:08
four maybe? Yeah, GQ is just like the Mads and
9:11
Cracks. Yeah, same thing. What's the difference?
9:14
Yeah. OK, so Weekly World News went on to thrive
9:18
online between 2009 and 2015. Get out of here.
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Did it become a cult? No, we're going to talk
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about that a little more in a little bit. But
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the Weekly World News was first published going
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back all the way to the beginning. and take a
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guess take a guess where do you think oh what
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what country city where no sit let's go with
9:39
state what state was it first published in i'm
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gonna say new jersey florida okay makes sense
9:45
yeah it makes sense first published in lantana
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florida it moved to boca rattan in the late 90s
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which would explain a lot it was unique as a
9:54
tabloid because it was printed entirely in black
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and white The Weekly World News traditionally
10:00
claimed that it always printed the truth, but
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many stories appeared to have comedic intent,
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more so as time went by. I guess this was a time
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that you were able to get away with things like
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that, saying that they're true and they're 100
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% not. As recalled by Joe Berger, a former White
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House correspondent who served as a Weekly World
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News editor, from 1981 to 2001, which is a weird.
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You got involved like politically, like fairly
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high up. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, totally weird sentence.
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He said, quote, about 80 % of the stories were
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clipped from newspapers. We had three or four
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clippers who were surrounded by mountains of
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newspapers. We spent the day looking at newspapers
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throughout the world clipping weird stories.
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OK, that makes sense where the name came from
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then. Yeah, about 50 % were about people narrowly
10:57
escaping death, someone falling off a cliff or
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hanging off a tree branch for four days until
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they were seems to me where they kind of got
11:06
their start was looking at oddities around the
11:10
world, which I can totally get behind. I can
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totally get behind the whole thing to be honest
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with you, but they're kind of taking stories
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from everywhere. It's just like these are weird.
11:20
Let's put them in our little publication. The
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Weekly World News never publicly contradicted
11:26
the accuracy of its own stories until 2004 when
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it began stating, the reader should suspend disbelief
11:34
for the sake of enjoyment." And I just love that
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we grew up in a world where we can see this on
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a newsstand and it was sold as the complete truth.
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Whereas today all you're hearing is fake news
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and what's AI, what's not. You can't tell the
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truth. You have AI warnings and you don't know
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what to believe sometimes. But this is just on
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the shelves. The weekly world news could not
12:03
exist in the way it did today. No, not at all.
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There's no room for it, no. Which is, it's like
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a little bit, it's sad, but it's also like a
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little bit gives you like the warm fuzzies inside.
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But no, it would have a bad following today if
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it existed today. Like it would be on par with
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what's going on. Oh, totally. The weekly world
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news ran strange but true stories such as, quote,
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devote Christian attacked and he's the one fined.
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referring to British street evangelist Harry
12:38
Hammond. Other verifiable stories printed by
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the tabloid included those of a giant mutant
12:44
hog monster attacking Georgia and the arrest
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of Tallahassee Florida man whose pants were on
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fire at the time. Chelsea, I'm just going to
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say those articles all actually sound like they
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did in fact happen. See, here's the thing. It
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started with articles that were true, which is
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nice. Yeah, you raise a fair point there. Yeah.
13:03
Yeah, it sounds like work. publications from
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all these other different world newspapers at
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the time. But that does sound like work, you're
13:11
right. Yeah, it also reported on the discovery
13:14
of an infant dragon preserved in formaldehyde,
13:18
proving the existence of dragons, although this
13:21
was later proven to be a hoax, I guess. It also
13:25
quoted Vatican exorcist Father Gabriel Amorth
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on Pope John Paul II's battle with Satan and
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ran a story on the trademark between O, the Oprah
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Magazine, and the German erotic periodical also
13:39
named O. Oh. I wish I would have taken a look
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at that one, honestly. Which one? The O one.
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The clear choice of those two. Other common weekly
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world news stories involved alien abductions,
13:58
the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, time travel,
14:02
predictions of an oncoming depression or the
14:04
apocalypse, or other newly found lost prophecies
14:08
or religious relics. There were also characters
14:11
who in later years became stock pictures in weekly
14:15
world news stories, most famously Batboy. A half
14:18
-bat, half -boy discovered in West Virginia caverns.
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Did not fight a single crime, unfortunately.
14:25
And P. Lod, an extraterrestrial who became involved
14:29
in Earth politics and had an affair with Hillary
14:31
Clinton. Since the weekly world news began to
14:34
publish online, its stories have occasionally
14:37
been treated as legitimate news stories by readers
14:40
unaware of the nature of the publication. More
14:43
about it going online in a moment. In late 2010,
14:48
the Weekly World News ran a satirical story written
14:51
by Frank Lake indicating that the Los Angeles
14:54
Police Department intended to purchase 10 ,000
14:57
jetpacks at a total cost of $1 billion. The story
15:02
was reported as fact by the Fox and Friends Morning
15:05
News Show. I love this. Yeah, that sounds like
15:09
Fox. That does sound like them. I know. They're
15:13
like the start of fake news, I think. The Weekly
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World News reported twice, once in 2011 and once
15:20
in 2012, that the social media website Facebook
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would shut down. Both times the claim was interpreted
15:27
by some as genuine. The second time Facebook
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issued an official reply to the technological
15:32
blog Mashable stating, quote, the answer is no.
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So please help us put an end to this silliness.
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We didn't get the memo about shutting down and
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there's lots to do. So we'll just keep cranking
15:44
away like always, end quote. Whether partially
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fictional or wholly true the writing style remained
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as fact -based as possible end quote Whether
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partially fictional or wholly true the writing
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style remained as fact -based as possible Bob
16:05
Lind a writer at the weekly world news recalled
16:08
for mental floss quote We wrote these things
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straight for people who wanted to believe these
16:13
things we wrote it like a news story end quote
16:16
February 1989, Weekly World News published real
16:20
graphic photos on its front page of the post
16:23
-autopsy body of executed serial killer Ted Bundy,
16:29
which is pretty intense. yeah yeah that's uh
16:32
that is real news though they're not making that
16:35
up that is crazy that they did that though front
16:38
page and they're the only ones yeah yeah managing
16:43
editor eddie klontz defended his decision to
16:47
run the photos claiming that he hoped that such
16:49
images would deter other murderers as if they're
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going through grocery store self checkouts being
16:55
like you know what well they all did Technically,
16:59
I think. Maybe? I don't know. They could have
17:02
just be getting food at like the local 7 - Well,
17:05
they had magazines too, I think. As if they would
17:08
see that and be like, you know what? I don't
17:10
think I'm gonna do it. Yeah. And also, serial
17:14
killers are not the only people who get autopsied.
17:17
That's true. Like regular people do as well.
17:22
That's true. You could say mathematician with
17:25
the same impact. That's true. That's very true.
17:28
I guess nobody even thought about that. Angry
17:32
and surprised officials in Florida vowed to catch
17:36
the person responsible, that is for the autopsy
17:40
photos of Ted Bundy on the front page, eventually
17:43
arresting a low -level employee of the Alichua
17:46
County Florida Medical Examiner's Office and
17:50
charging him with taking the photographs and
17:52
selling them to the Weekly World News. Do you
17:54
think he was wrong? Well, he did sell them. so
17:57
kind of like if he just gave them for free do
18:01
you think it would be less of a i would think
18:03
ethically there's more of like these are things
18:05
that should be seen as opposed to like i could
18:07
make money off of this that that's true i mean
18:11
he is just living in a capitalism society though
18:15
yeah Yeah, and a libertarian would say, yeah,
18:18
I think. Unless he was under contract, which
18:21
is the weird side of that. Like, I don't know
18:24
where that falls. Like, was he wrong? I don't
18:27
know. Is that not a thing you can do? I think
18:29
ethically as like a mortician, right? That's
18:31
what he is. I don't think you're supposed to
18:34
sell pictures of people you're autopsy -ing.
18:37
Do you think, no? I have no idea about what morticians
18:40
can and can't do. Do you think they can't do
18:43
that? No, you know what? Sorry. I do think ethically
18:46
it's wrong because the only reason he went to
18:48
sell it is because this person was famous. That
18:51
is true. You wouldn't just... He wouldn't normally
18:53
sell these photos to other people. Yeah. No,
18:56
no, you couldn't. There's no market for anyone
18:59
that's not Ted Bundy, probably. Well, there might
19:02
be further. OK, OK, I can get behind that. As
19:05
other supermarket tabloids switched to celebrity
19:08
gossip, not sure what they switched from at this
19:12
point, the Weekly World News remained devoted
19:14
to its original content, refusing to fact check
19:18
its way out of a sensational story. Or as Lane
19:22
Calder, Weekly World News co -founder and inquirer,
19:25
editor -in -chief from 1973 to 1977, told Mental
19:29
Floss, quote, We'd say Elvis was still alive
19:33
and run a picture of what Elvis would have looked
19:36
like at the time. Oh yeah. Like many times. Totally.
19:39
We'd get dozens of phone calls if someone calls
19:42
and says, I saw Elvis. You didn't try to disprove
19:46
the headline. End quote. I love that. I would
19:49
love to work in a place like this. This would
19:52
just be my groove. I feel like I would be totally
19:55
in my element. We don't fact check. Fact check
19:58
is beyond us. It doesn't even exist at this point.
20:02
I will say, sadly, I'm also seeing like the start
20:05
of the far right that we see today and the conspiracy.
20:08
side of it. I can, but I don't think that that's
20:12
something that actually existed at this time.
20:15
No, it didn't. But like, I'm seeing the anti
20:17
-vax thing sprouting from this. Do you? Yeah.
20:20
We don't fact check. We just have people liking
20:23
and calling us and saying that you're right.
20:26
I love it. I'm fresh off. like a five -hour listen
20:32
of Alex Jones. Alex Jones would use people just
20:38
emailing him to him as saying, like, have you
20:42
ever looked into this conspiracy theory? And
20:44
he would use it as a fact. He would just lie
20:47
and say, yeah, I came up with this. No, he would
20:50
use it as a source. He would say, my sources
20:53
tell me. And I just feel like that's what I'm
20:56
getting from them. But to a lesser extent, it
21:00
very well could have inspired others. I didn't
21:03
quite get to that point of that, what it inspired
21:07
from this, but it's definitely in a world where
21:11
fact checking didn't exist. Really? It probably
21:15
did because you're in the media. You kind of
21:18
got to do a little bit of due diligence there,
21:20
but not to the extent that we see it today because
21:23
we see so much AI and so much fake news, I guess.
21:27
Did we see fake news before? Probably. But we
21:30
just trusted the media. We didn't have Facebook
21:33
where people were just saying anything and people
21:36
were taking it as fact. And it just kind of all
21:39
the media didn't exist until the late 2000s.
21:41
Yeah. And I would say this is probably the very
21:44
beginning of it. I would go on. I don't know.
21:48
Outside of this, I think of Alex Jones as like
21:51
one of the first. And this would have been after,
21:54
or before, sorry. Wait before, because Alex was
21:56
like 94, 95. Yeah, so it's refreshing. What's
22:03
the other Bill? It's Bill Moore and Bill something,
22:05
the one who got like gunned down. Bill Cooper,
22:08
yeah. He was kind of the first, but like he would
22:11
be right around the same time and nowhere near
22:13
as popular as Weekly World News. Oh, no, not
22:16
even close. So I just kind of find it nostalgic
22:19
that this is where we grew up. This is kind of
22:23
and it was the environment. It didn't seem political.
22:26
They were not. And something like this would
22:28
be so attacked now. But there was room for it
22:32
back then. It was just like, uh, whatever. Just
22:34
don't pay attention to it if you don't believe
22:36
it. Right. And today it would have been a So
22:39
it just I don't think you even talk to your friends
22:41
about it. Like it was just something you did
22:43
on your own Yeah, it was just it. I think at
22:46
that point. It's just something that you understood
22:48
to be Crazy because it had bad boy, right? Yeah,
22:54
you just understood that it wasn't though at
22:57
they were taking actual And I never got past
23:01
the headlines, because I never actually picked
23:03
it up and looked. So I never actually looked
23:05
at the stories from other places. No, it was
23:07
just like, oh, that seems fun. Yeah, exactly.
23:10
And then you move on. Yeah, it's just a super
23:13
like, kind of nostalgic thing of the times that
23:16
something like this that could exist where it
23:19
couldn't exist like that anymore. So Derek Lang,
23:22
a stringer for the paper, I don't know what that
23:25
means, could be a typo, could not be. He said
23:28
that, quote, Everything in my stories was fake,
23:30
you know, depending on how you define fake in
23:33
quotes. There were regular columns that were
23:37
included in the newspaper. This included Ed Anger,
23:41
who was an opinion article. There was first Dear
23:44
Babs and later Dear Doddy, who were outspoken
23:48
advice columnists. High Dolly was relationship
23:52
advice. Horse Sense, which was a medical advice.
23:56
Monkey Business, which was financial and business
23:59
related advice and information, and Madame Melissa,
24:03
who was a psychic. The most famous of these was
24:06
Ed Anger, a character created in 1979 by staffer
24:11
Raffy Klinger. Anger was perpetually an angry
24:15
conservative. A typical column began, quote,
24:19
I'm pig biting mad, end quote. who rallied against
24:23
illegal immigrants, women, speed limits, and
24:27
rainforests, among many other perceived ills.
24:30
Anger, hated foreigners, yoga, whales, only one
24:34
reason you could hate whales, speed limits, and
24:37
pineapple on pizza. What a fucking son of a bitch.
24:40
Wow. He likes vlogging, electrocutions, and beer.
24:45
This person happened to go on to become a beloved
24:48
children's musician. Who are you thinking about,
24:51
like, uh, Mr. Rogers? Rafi. Rafi, no. Okay. No.
24:56
Different Rafi, got it. I did think, you know,
25:00
I'm gonna spoil something. I'm gonna read Ed
25:03
Anger Still Lives On on the weekly world news
25:07
online. I'm going to read the most recent. I
25:10
was just going to pick one at random, but I think
25:13
the most recent has immediately appealed to me.
25:17
OK, I do think I screwed up because I thought
25:19
that you mentioned a person named Raffy right
25:21
before him. You did. OK. He was let me just think
25:26
he was a character created in 1979 by staffer
25:31
Raffy Klinger. OK, OK. That's a different. No,
25:34
you didn't screw up. OK. I don't know if Raffi's
25:38
name is Raffi Klinger. Could you imagine that
25:40
would be such a twist? I'm going to make the
25:42
angriest person to get all the rage out for so
25:46
I can just do kid things. Yeah, you can exist
25:49
in two worlds like that. I think there's nothing
25:51
wrong with that. You totally can. One of the
25:55
happiest people out there writes horror mangas
25:59
in Japan. You can be both. Yeah, Junji Ito. Very
26:02
happy person. One of the happiest people in Japan
26:05
writes horror mangas. I love that. That's a dynamic
26:07
human being. Whereas even King used cocaine to
26:09
do that. Yeah, exactly. I think he's still upset.
26:12
It's the difference. Yeah, so I'm gonna read
26:15
this not Rafi column. It is, who is it? Ed Anger's
26:20
column. His most recent, July 11th, 2025. I'm
26:24
madder than a bull in a bounce house about this
26:27
Epstein client list cover -up. This is gonna
26:31
be good. Yeah, I haven't even read this. No,
26:34
would a bull in a bounce house be angry? It would
26:37
definitely be confused. Okay, I've always heard
26:40
that they're pissed in a china shop, so... No,
26:44
but I have to assume, one, they're confused.
26:47
Two, the bouncy castle can't support the weight
26:50
of a bull. Okay, well then that's why he's mad.
26:52
It would immediately deflate. That's why he's
26:54
mad. Is it mad or is it confused and scared?
26:57
I guess what's the difference? Yeah, it's both.
27:00
It's definitely both I would be mad if I was
27:03
bouncing and having fun and then all of a sudden
27:05
I'm not It never bounce it got in there and it
27:09
deflated and maybe he knew He should be bouncing
27:13
balls can't have the concept of that It would
27:15
get in there not knowing the kids were having
27:17
a fun time in there and therefore it would have
27:18
a fun time in there Just got in there lapsed
27:21
upon it We're turning too much where with the
27:25
ball That's just sad. I just feel really sad
27:29
for the bowl. It's not angry. It's very confused
27:32
and just scared. It's probably scared. But again,
27:37
what is anger? Anger is a mixture of confusion
27:40
and fear. Okay, here's what I think it is at
27:44
this point. I think an anger is projecting his
27:47
anger. If he is angry, at this point, it just
27:51
seems like a last name. So people maybe make
27:54
assumptions about that. Maybe they just read
27:57
it in the wrong tone because the characters badly
28:00
bleed. It's true. They might. But let's see.
28:04
first Ed Anger column I've actually read. Let's
28:07
get into it. Folks, I'm so steamed I could fry
28:10
an egg on my forehead. The Jeffrey Epstein client
28:14
list, that filthy roster of high flying perverts
28:19
and power hungry creeps still hasn't seen the
28:22
light of day. And I'm about ready to bust a gasket.
28:26
This is the kind of thing that makes my blood
28:29
boil hotter than a Texas sidewalk in July. the
28:33
FBI sitting on this list like a hen on a raw
28:36
egg. And I'm here to tell you it's time to crack
28:39
it open and let the stench out. For those of
28:43
you who've been living under a rock, bracket,
28:45
and I ain't judging because rocks are probably
28:48
cleaner than Washington DC, and bracket. Jeffrey
28:52
Epstein was a slimy, jet -setting scumbag who
28:55
ran a sicko sex trafficking ring for the rich
28:58
and famous. We're talking politicians, CEOs,
29:03
Hollywood bigwigs, the kind of folks who think
29:05
laws are just suggestions. The feds raided this
29:09
operation, grabbed his little black book, and
29:12
now they're acting like it's the recipe for Aunt
29:14
Mabel's secret meatloaf. Well, I say hogwash.
29:19
The American people deserve to know who was pals
29:23
with this creep and we deserve to know now. The
29:27
FBI's got this list locked up tighter than Fort
29:30
Knox and it's driving me up the wall. What are
29:33
they hiding? Who are they protecting? I'll tell
29:35
you who. They're buddies in the elite club of
29:38
champagne sipping caviar slurping fat cats who
29:41
think they're above the law. These are the same
29:43
clowns who lecture us about transparency while
29:46
they're covering up dirt that make a sewer rat
29:49
blush. If there's nothing to hide, then why is
29:52
the FBI acting like they're guarding the Holy
29:54
Grail? Fill the beans, G -man, let's see the
29:57
names. I can just imagine the excuses. Oh Ed,
30:01
we can't release the list. It's an ongoing investigation.
30:04
Bloney! This investigation's been ongoing, longer
30:08
than a soap opera, and I'm sick of it. Or maybe
30:10
they'll just say, releasing the list could compromise
30:13
national security. Double baloney with a side
30:16
of bunk. The only thing it'll compromise is the
30:19
reputations of some big shots who thought they
30:21
could party with Epstein and skate free. Well,
30:24
I say it's time to name names and shame shames.
30:28
And don't give me that privacy nonsense either.
30:31
Privacy is for folks who pay their taxes and
30:35
mow their lawns, not for creeps who allegedly
30:38
hung out with a guy like Epstein. If you're on
30:40
that list, you don't get the hide -behind due
30:43
process while the rest of us are left wondering
30:45
which of our so -called leaders was sipping martinis
30:48
on Pedophile Island. The public's got a right
30:52
to know if the people running this country or
30:54
starring in our movies or signing our paychecks
30:57
were buddies with a monster period. It goes on
31:00
for a while. I'm actually quite surprised with
31:04
how that was going, given what I kind of set
31:06
up for what it was like. It seemed like he was
31:09
very conservative. Yeah. Conservatives really
31:12
like, conservatives also really want the list
31:15
revealed. Some of them do. Yes. Yeah. And yeah,
31:18
I think that is a misappropriation or a stereotype
31:21
that somebody who is angry is a Republican. But
31:25
also he might be a Republican and just like also
31:28
really want the list. Yeah, no, that's true.
31:30
We don't know for sure. That's just one he had.
31:33
I mean, he's been going back for how many years
31:35
now? A lot. That one caught my eye. I was going
31:38
to choose from a different one. I mean, who doesn't
31:41
want to hear about the Epstein list being released?
31:44
Because let's not forget that that's a thing
31:47
that's happening right now. We want the list
31:49
to come out no matter who is on it. And Trump
31:52
is probably on it. Allegedly? Do I say allegedly
31:56
after that? I think so. Anyhow, beginning on
32:03
May 9th, 2005, the Weekly World News went all
32:06
new along with other tabloid papers such as the
32:09
National Enquirer, which had become bigger, bolder,
32:12
better. Okay, because it is the same group. I
32:16
assume. Yeah, it is. In the new weekly world
32:19
news, Serena and Sonya Sabak's psychic column
32:22
was replaced by the horoscopes of Madame Malisa,
32:27
and Dottie Primrose's Dear Dottie was supplanted
32:30
by an advice column called Hi Dolly written by
32:33
a middle -aged southern blonde woman. They did
32:35
not change it. No. The Weekly World News included
32:40
a weekly weird picture search by mad cartoonist
32:44
Sergio Arrejones. Other features included trivia,
32:48
test yourself, jokes and misadventure aka the
32:51
gayest American hero who has penetrated the mob,
32:56
gone to Hollywood and fought Dracula traveling
32:59
from the depths of the Earth's center to outer
33:01
space. Though it mainly featured offbeat stories,
33:06
it also featured legitimate games and quizzes
33:08
such as crossword puzzles, a segment called Bedside
33:11
Matter where readers chose which celebrity is
33:14
best suited for the featured celebrity, and Mystery
33:18
Eyes which featured photographs of five pairs
33:21
of eyes which belonged to celebrities and readers
33:24
had to guess who they were. In 1999, David Pecker
33:28
bought American Media Inc, which owned the Weekly
33:32
World News. Within the next two years, many of
33:34
the Weekly World News longtime writers and editors
33:37
were sadly gone. In a filing with the United
33:40
States Securities and Exchange Commission in
33:43
March 2007, American Media said the sales of
33:47
Weekly World News in 2006 were only $83 ,000
33:51
per issue. Huge drop, not in its heyday. anymore.
33:55
The times they are changing. Weekly World News
33:58
ceased its print publication in August 2007.
34:02
It was then published as an insert with the Sun
34:05
magazine with the new material being printed
34:08
alongside articles and columns from older issues
34:11
until the Sun itself ceased publication in 2012.
34:15
In October 2008, Batboy LLC, a company started
34:20
by Neil McGinnis, bought Weekly World News. It
34:23
was relaunched as an online -only publication
34:26
in 2009. In January 2001, the Weekly World News
34:30
was made available via an online paid subscription.
34:34
The online edition was emailed to subscribers
34:37
bi -weekly. The online edition closely resembled
34:41
the printed weekly world news in both appearance.
34:44
It uses the weekly world news logo used from
34:46
1979 to 2001. And subject matter, the first issue
34:51
headline was werewolf Sue's airline overflight
34:54
delay. So still staying true to the original
34:57
stuff. In January 2013, Weekly World News announced
35:01
that it would go behind a paywall. For those
35:04
of you that are worried, it is no longer behind
35:07
a paywall. That is why I had read to you from
35:10
Ed Anger. Otherwise, we would have had to charge
35:13
you to listen to this episode, sadly. Lucky for
35:16
you, it is free. In August 2019, Greg De Alessandro
35:20
took over as CEO, Editor -in -Chief with David
35:24
Collins as President slash CFO. Not related to
35:27
Lou Alessandro, is it? I know. No, it's De Alessandro.
35:32
OK. Could you imagine if it was so? And then
35:36
they only printed the UFO stories in the weekly
35:38
world news. They relaunched the brand and began
35:42
developing a number of projects with Hollywood
35:44
producers. And on September 21, 2020, Weekly
35:49
World News launched a Kickstarter campaign in
35:52
an effort to expand reporting, graphics, and
35:54
video production, as well as to get the tabloid
35:57
back into print. The campaign was successful
36:00
in reaching its financial goal. On March 21,
36:03
2021, Weekly World News printed its first full
36:07
-length print publication in 15 years. quote,
36:10
weekly world news, greatest covers was printed
36:12
as a limited special edition, 5 ,000 copies,
36:16
which is nowhere near what it was selling in
36:20
its heyday. Even when it stopped being printed.
36:23
Yeah. Is that good for magazines these days?
36:26
I don't actually know. Like they, they can't
36:28
be selling anywhere near what they were in the
36:30
early 2000. That's very true. And I didn't actually
36:34
look at that. It may be a supply and demand so
36:37
that they could. more it might yeah it might
36:41
have been a way to make more money and that's
36:44
just me uh speculating yeah and uh that's where
36:48
i'm gonna leave it until our episode for next
36:51
week do you have any comments it made me very
36:54
nostalgic this episode i know and like not to
36:58
like the actual magazine more so just like shopping
37:01
as like a child i know you know there's only
37:04
so many things that i remember shopping as a
37:06
child One, so delicious. And that's not so much
37:11
shopping, so much as having them in my lunch
37:14
as a child and really liking them. That and they're
37:17
so much more open to kids eating the food while
37:20
they shop than the adults. Yeah, totally. The
37:23
other thing I specifically remember while shopping
37:27
was I remember a big thing around the magazines
37:31
and such when Princess Diana died. I don't know
37:35
why that sticks in my memory so much, but that
37:38
was a huge thing. And the other thing is the
37:41
weekly world news. Like those are my three things
37:44
that I can name off the top of my head about
37:47
shopping as a child Oh, I always remember I always
37:50
remember our mom picking up a people's magazine
37:53
like every shopping trip Oh every single time
37:56
never a weekly world news though, and I don't
37:59
know whether to be impressed by that or disappointed
38:02
by that no, and People's is the one that still
38:07
exists. Yeah Yeah, well, in print, at least at
38:10
the at the counter. We don't know if she subscribes
38:13
to Weekly World News now. She very well might.
38:17
I don't have suspicions. But yeah, we don't know
38:19
for sure. Anyhow, with that, I have been Taylor
38:23
here with Chelsea. We are Jerry to the Fringe.
38:25
Thank you all for listening. We'll see you next
38:27
week. Bye. Thank you for listening to Journey
38:32
to the Fringe. If you have liked what you have
38:34
listened to, please like, share, subscribe, or
38:38
follow depending on what venue you are listening
38:41
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38:44
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38:50
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38:55
really want to communicate with us and give us
38:57
ideas for new episodes or tell us that were wrong
39:00
and terrible either way, please send us an email
39:02
at journeytothefringe at gmail .com. For now,
39:06
I'll see you in the next episode.