Greetings comrades. I hope things in the Homofascist rEVOLution (god, that word is even retarded to type) are going well. A quick peak over enemy lines pretty much confirms that this is working as traffic is way down. Keep up the good work by, er, I guess doing some real work (I know, I know, it sucks. But maybe you will make your boss happy and get that raise).
For those of you that are having withdrawl, I came up with a new idea for the blog that I will be debuting this afternoon. I am hoping it be like an Anna Nicole Smith sized bottle of methadone to help you with those shakes. Who says you can't come up with good ideas at 7:00 am while trying to crawl out from under a hangover?
Below is a little press from yesterday about Megan's firing - there will be more to come. And an awesome post from Gridskipper yesterday that is most timely. Please give Andrew your appreciation.
From the Huffington Post - Another Gawker Media Staff Shake-Up: Wonkette Editor Fired.
From DCist - Wonkette Overhauls Staff...Again
From The Bilerico Project - Wonkette, Over and Out
For you Gawker-ites that are just dying to comment somewhere, you might like this over at Gridskipper.
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36 comments:
Another Gawker sighting
http://gawker.com/5002426/new-york-posts-page-six-in-gawker-spell-hijinks
Man, this is tough. I tried commenting over at Jezebel but one of the articles was about the fact that Maddonna's dark roots were showing, and it made me weep for the future of humanity. For the love of god, where can we comment??!??!??!
@lonbordin
Thanks for the link, and great comment! I am glad that the Gawker piece linked to Megan's farewell.
@tommmcatt
Fag please. Surely you have an opinion on Madonna's hair. Megan, San Fran Lefty, Jamie Sommers and I could go on for hours I have no doubt.
Fuck, I got into a major geek bitch slap fight over Star Trek on Gawker's io9. No, seriously Star Trek. I haven't been in a knock down dragout geekathon since 1998.
And I was playing the part of the humorless SF Paultard equivalent! As a science guy it angers me when SF nerds don't understand skienze.
How's that for withdrawal?!?!!?
I have no problem discussing Madonna's hair. But I do have the same issues with Jez as I did before. Today's Crappy Hour post was funny and insightful, I thought, but the comments were smug, bourgeois neo-hippie bullshit about making apple butter with locally-grown organic produce and taking Moe/Megan to task for failing to indict Obama for....running for President too? I don't know. It was like 10% of the people actually got the point and tone of the piece and everyone else was running into walls shouting wakka wakka wakka.
manchucandidate: I think I love you.
@manchu: Ditto with the you-suck-no-you-suck flame wars at Gizmodo. It's not the fighting as such (Hello, Paultards!), but that it's so damn boring. Please folks, if you must insult, insult with style.
Damn. If we don't resolve this situation quickly, I may have to start insulting my friends.
You know, if we annoy the rest of the Gawker big-time, maybe they'll help bring the pressure on Ken to get rid of us.
By get rid of, I mean get Ken to make Wonkette habitable for us again.
@berightback: Checked the Jez thread, and you're right.
It's not the estrogen. It's the earnestness.
Cold Turkey, has got me
On the run.....
Strange how Megan's story is going everywhere. Most people couldn't give a shit, but I don't care for most people anyway...
@berightback,
Love you too. It's hard to find a group of savy intelligent snarkers who don't let their passions get in the way of harsh funny commentary. I'd sort of go deadspin (mean mofos there), but I hate the sports currently in season (football and basketball) and don't care about hockey as the Maple Loafs have sucked that love out of me.
@nojo
Most of it was my fault as I normally don't care, but I guess I was looking for a "fight" like Barry was in the SC debates. Strangely enough, it did gather the most hits and comments on io9.com.
@homofacist
Leave me my butch illusions, darling, please.
Meanwhile, I know we closed the bar, but I'm still keeping tabs on Megan's farewell post so any newcomers don't feel left out. Hard to imagine that folks would go home Friday afternoon and not return to work or Wonkette until Tuesday morning, but I hear it happens.
Wait. Wait. Wait. This is day 1? Seriously? Not Saturday? They posted all weekend. I thought this was the end of the strike. Damn, now I look like a scab. A picket line crosser. I'm really sorry for commenting over there. It was an error. I fully support the strike.
-- 1974
@manchu: Ummm, wow. That felt like a compilation of every ST parody since 1967...
I don't dare join in there, but the reason Star Trek has "transporters" is that planetary landings were too expensive to film on a weekly TV budget. That's the real science behind the fiction.
I'm reminded of a great Asimov story (long forgot the title) of someone who used an "inertial field" to kill his enemy. They were playing pool, see, and all the killer needed to do was aim his shot so the ball passed through the field just so, and shot off through his enemy's guts -- thanks to the sudden complete lack of resistance.
That said, when in hell are they going to release Gallactica Season 3 on DVD?
@1974 It is okay hon - we weren't organized enough by Saturday. Today is the first business day since the firing so thus our biggest chance to make an impact. We won't hold it against you. We are just glad you're here.
@dc1974: Dude, you narrowly avoided an unpleasant visit from HFA Special Ops Major Rickushay.
...who's also a member of the Breeder Battalion, just so you don't get the wrong idea.
A bit of a morale boost for the male members of the Breeder Battalion:
http://io9.com/photogallery/nerdcore/1000495277
If I squinch my eyes a bit, I can convince myself I'm looking at Liz K. The only thing missing is the tiny, grinning troll in the background.
Oh, the above is WAY NSFW.
@nojo
Hard to imagine that folks would go home Friday afternoon and not return to work or Wonkette until Tuesday morning, but I hear it happens.
It does happen... it happened to me. Am I ashamed for being AWOL? Yes, of course, but I won't let that shame keep me silenced: Wonkette = Meh. I heart Megan!
Reporting for duty, Sir!
No you aren't constrained to Madonna's hair, there is soooo much more to freak out about over on Jezebel, like Morgellons! ai yi yi, I have been following this in the "regular" press and this is creepy as fucking hell.
http://jezebel.com/347554/mysterious-magenta-fibers-crawling-out-of-your-skin-youre-not-alone
and no way am I joining the "Breeder Batallion" - I'm in the Fag Hag Auxiliary tyvm.
Ok, If I can't comment at Wonkette, you will all now be subjected to my long winded screeds until I can return. Perhaps I can earn the distinction of being the first commenter culled at HOMFASARM.
Truth be told, before this action, I had no friggin' idea who Megan, Layne, Denton et.al were, mostly because I was just not that interested. I just enjoyed cursing about politics in a public forum where cynical anti-social behavior is nurtured and encouraged. Now, having read the stories, Megan's blog, the HOMFACARM blog commentary, wiki articles, etc. I know more about Wonkette, its business model, its history and personnel than I ever wanted to know (and WAY WAY more about the commenters than I wanted to know - Oh! To return to the halcyon days when you were all faceless icons! - But I digress). Since I am now armed with a few sketchy facts, I will exercise my prerogative as a blogger and leap to a broad sweeping conclusion with dogmatic conviction.
My experience in the corporate world (whether 10 employees or 10,000) is that layoffs are always financially motivated (unlike the DOJ where they are politically motivated). While the decisions on which individuals are cut is mostly random, they require some plausible rationale to create the illusion that it is not. I don't know why that is, but I know that the stated rationale whether "performance" or "consistent voice" or "hire his own team" is almost always bullshit.
The real reason is always just numbers - We have X employees, pageloads are down, we lost a big advertiser (BTW - who was that Wonkette advertiser with the nubile teen models in their underwear all over the page? I miss them.) - soooo we now need X/2 employees. Just business.
Even in small organizations, staging a layoff has two primary actors, the Decider, and the Executioner. The Deciders, with the Olympian egos befitting their exalted position in the organization, always believe that, for the good of the Organization, they must remain a sympathetic figure and stay above the fray on which individuals are cut. Even if (especially if) the Decider made the decision his own self. The Executioner is often recently promoted middle management, who accepts the new role knowing that layoffs are expected and in what time frame, but not necessarily the number. More importantly, the Executioner understands implicitly or explicitly that part of the job description is to be a corporate beard for the Decider, and take responsibility for the individual firings regardless of whether or not it is their decision. Just part of the job because - you know - it is important for the overall corporate empire that the Decider keep their hands clean. If, as an Executioner, you can't take the heat and say something like "I'm sorry, this is not my idea, it's really the Decider, but you have to go." Well - that is prima facie evidence that you are just not management material.
This is all just a long-winded way of saying I think the animus aimed at Layne is misguided. He probably had a "You or Megan" ultimatum handed to him as a consequence of the financial situation (two highest paid employees?), his hands are tied now, and he is maintaining a perverse corporate integrity by taking the blame. We are not going to see Layne "hire his own team", until well after the nubile teen models reappear in the advertising blocks.
@mw (DWSUWF): As far as Wonkette advertising goes, I use the Adblock Plus plugin for Firefox on most Web pages, except Megan's blog, where she specifically has Google ads to help her with $$$.
Everyone in the HFA: Be sure to help our sista out by clicking on the Google Ad links to give her a couple o'pennies so she can properly launder her beaver.
Rptrcub
1st Armored Hirsute Division
mw (DWSUWF):
Thanks for the cogent analysis.
I hold with all you said about numbers and the resulting good cop/bad cop action. I also agree this is about Megan not Ken.
My story is I just liked the ambiance at the particular corner bar known as Wonkette. Things and people were so obviously cool that I lurked for months before I dared essay a comment.
Then Megan came along and made a cool place orders of magnitude better:
(1) She elevated the discourse with concrete insider details (fewer pangs of conscience when I laughed at assfucking jokes)
(2) She kept the conversation in the gutter where it belongs (fewer fears of becoming serious or god forbid rational)
Megan has the super-talent to do these two things simultaneously. This is unique in my travels. So wherever she ends up posting, there I go.
and this just in from the Washington Post:
Thompson has just dropped out of the presidential race.
@ nojo: It's not the estrogen. It's the earnestness.
I know - it's the sort of thing that allows Hitch to get away with saying that women aren't funny. You could just point to that thread and say QED. So much to work with - Air Fuck One (which one commenter didn't understand!), Wild Oats, other great stuff from Megan & Moe - and they get hung up on discussing the f-ing green movement. It's enough to make the Baby Jeebus cry. This is exactly why I prefer to hang out with teh gays.
Speaking of which, louisev, I believe the fag hags here constitute a brigade, not a mere auxiliary. Am I right, sisters?
a BRIGADE!? *SQUEEEL* you know what that means? We'll have our own Officer's Club!
@tommmcatt:
I posted Wonkette-Breeder style over at Jezebel relating to a story about some European model's outfit. Everyone was like "wow, nice shoes", or "ew, hate those shoes"
I said I'd hit it like a screendoor in a hurricane.
@rickushay:
*sigh* nobody bit. I has sadz.
Rickushay
HFA Special Ops
Breeder Brigade
sorry, seems that the link no worky.
I, for one, am glad that we also fully support the fetishization of the military!
@mw (DWSUWF): I was half-expecting a financial excuse, but this one's solidly editorial. Ken returned as Wonkette editor at the beginning of the month, determined that Megan's work didn't fit the direction he wants to take the blog, and cut her loose.
In this case, I think the animus is merited. Doubly so, since her work is part of what many of us enjoyed about Wonkette.
@ louisev:
I'd invite you to visit my 'brigade staff' to elicit more delightful squeels but, alas, that's saved for mrs rickushay.
i offer this, a breeder toast:
here's to honor: get on 'er and stay on 'er.
...and this, more general toast:
"may your ups and downs be found only in bed....."
@nojo
I'm saying Denton does not want to admit publicly that this a financial decision, he brought Ken back into that position on the condition that he makes this move and the "editorial decision" story is just that - a cover story.
We'll find out soon enough. If it is an editorial decision, there will soon be another FTE on the masthead. If its a financial decision, they are fully staffed now.
@louisev
An Officer's Club?!?! I'll have to give myself a promotion!
1st Lt Cynica
(Pls pronounce that "leftenant" like the Brits do, in honor of the Brit butts in the first banner and 'cause it sounds cooler.)
@nojo @mw(dwsuwf): If the reason is editorial, why let Liz G. go too? Something about her visual material doesn't suit his vision? If financial, perhaps letting Liz G. go would be a teeny (truly TEENY) bit more logical. Personally, I think Megan's growing popularity and Liz's pink camera making MSM news just chapped Ken's much-less popular butt, and Denton is a fucking misogynist (is that an oxymoron?).
I wasn't Barbie camera Liz Glover that was let go - she is the videographer that happens to have that camera. It was Liz Gorman that was sacked - she was the photographer that crashed parties and brought us pictures of douchebag DC types acting douchebaggy.
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