The Onion and Apologies

 

Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but The Onion is kind of a cunt, right?

For anyone who’s missed the controversy surrounding the satirical publication, it began over an Oscar-related tweet that called the nine-year-old star of Beasts of Southern Wild a cunt. Within an hour, the tweet was deleted, but by then of course millions of The Onion’s followers had already seen it, and many had retweeted it. People like Wendell Pierce and many others criticized the paper, and the next morning its CEO issued an apology for the tweet.

Now, I should say that I don’t think the joke was very good: It was crude and simple and basically relied on the shock value of calling a little girl the c-word, so I can see why many found it offensive. But I also think the ideas behind the joke—that Quvenzhané Wallis is so adorable and beloved BUT that Hollywood often turns quickly and cruelly on child stars—-are perfect subjects for The Onion’s brand of satire. The product wasn’t good, but the thought behind it was fine.

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Monday Medley

What we read while preemptively forgetting old acquaintances…

• David Wain reviews Les Misérables, and Michael Schulman ranks the cast’s singing. Why has the story stayed relevant for 150 years?

• The greatest comedy writing staff you’ve never heard about. And David Letterman talks about Jay Leno.

• The FISA wiretapping laws were renewed again, with little opposition and bipartisan support. Jacob Appelbaum talks about the surveillance state in America. Spiegel Online examines the woes of an American drone operator.

• Speaking of the civil liberties violations, New York City Mayor Bloomberg credited the stop-and-frisk program for the city’s lowest murder rate in history.

• The LA Times looks at the perception of gays in sports, including an unfortunate take from Torii Hunter.

• Does a new showrunner for The Walking Dead mean something for the rest of TV?

• An old SI profile of John Wooden. One of Wooden’s greatest players, Bill Walton, was the focus of Richard Deitsch’s SI media column after he returned to announcing.

• A list of the top 100 lists of all time.

Monday Medley

What we read while the world ended and started up again…

• Jerry Seinfeld talks about the state of his life and career. In other stand up comedy news, Tig Notaro talks about how surviving cancer has changed her.

• Is the way to deal with gun violence to go after gun culture and the firearms industry?

• John Branch and The New York Times upped the ante on the digital presentation of stories.

• Even the CIA is worried about how Zero Dark Thirty portrays torture.

• This week in oral histories: The writers behind Fire Joe Morgan sat down to discuss the blog’s inception and evolution.

• Joe Posnanski on redoing the Hall of Fame.

• Why did two South Carolina football alums commit suicide?

• Forget TIME: Nate Silver is Out‘s person of the year.

• David Chase looks back at the series finale of The Sopranos.

• After all these years, we finally know who Gossip Girl is.

• The entertaining Richard Deitsch hands out his sports media awards.

Monday Medley

What we read while not Googling “Santorum”…

• With so much military grandstanding in the Republican primary races, it’s worth wondering if a nuclear Iran would even be such a bad thing.

• A trio of comedy interviews: Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen talk about Portlandia; Louis C.K. talks about his show and other stuff; Nick Offerman (aka Ron Swanson) talks about writing his own episode.

• Speaking of Ron Swanson, the CEO of PBS defended public television’s funding model.

• It’s been 9 days since President Obama authorized indefinite detention without due process, so it’s worth paying attention to stories like this tragic case of wrongful imprisonment at Guantanamo Bay.

• Jodi Kantor’s new book about the Obamas analyzes the evolution of Michelle Obama as First Lady.

• Chuck Klosterman doesn’t mind drinking “mouse-dissolving acid.”

• A rare success story for 21st century journalism.

• Jorge Posada is retiring. John S made a Hall of Fame case for him a few years ago, but will it work?

• The greatest map you’ve ever seen.

• A profile of liberal pundit Dylan Ratigan.

• Woody Guthrie’s New Year’s resolutions.

Monday Medley

What we read while Newt Gingrich started quoting Dragon Ball Z…

• The comedy world lost another great comic last week, when Patrice O’Neal passed away at 41. Comedians from Greg Fitzsimmons to Jon Stewart to Mike Birbiglia paid tribute to O’Neal and his comedy.

• Sports Illustrated will unveil its Sportsman of the Year this week. To be honest, our two favorite candidates have already been eliminated: Here are Tim Layden on Aaron Rodgers and David Epstein on Eric LeGrand.

• A judge finally put a stop to the SEC’s policy of settling with financial firms. Many observers were quite pleased with this development, but others wondered what Judge Rakoff’s problem was.

• In these turbulent political times, it’s nice to know that some things still have bipartisan support, specifically the military’s right to detain people, including American citizens, no matter where they are captured! The draconian National Defense Authorization Act passed with support from most Republicans and many Democrats, because we are obviously at war, all the time, with everyone.

• Jonathan Chait doesn’t think paying college athletes is feasible.

• Tim and John S have been known to argue about the BCS. Now that the title game is set, Michael Weinreb makes his case for Boise State.

• Even we at NPI (who’ve been known to wax poetic about alternative rock of the 1990s) might consider this analysis of Semisonic’s “Closing Time” a little too much…

The Louie Rankings

Nervous about the rankings?

Well, we promised rankings of the second season of Louie, and we followed through. It took us several weeks, but we followed through. If you want to see how Josh and John S broke down this summer’s best comedy, just keep reading…

Parks and Recreation: The 25 Funniest Lines of the First Three Seasons

Earlier this week, I mentioned that one of the two shows I’m most excited to see come back to TV this fall is NBC’s Parks and Recreation. In fact, I was so excited that I decided to compile the 25 funniest moments from the first three seasons. If you like what you see, then tune in for tonight’s season premiere at 8:30. If not, then watch anyway–I left off a lot a of great stuff: