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14 May 2011 12:23

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Culture: Front page of the day features headline “Osama bin Wankin’!”

  • Today in newspaper front pages that remind you of the importance of tabloid journalism sometimes. The New York Daily News had a similar idea but with worse execution. (On a side note, Newseum, where we grabbed this page from, finally took the watermarks off their front pages — hopefully for good. We hope our campaign helped change their minds. We’d still like to see newspapers consider releasing their front pages under a Creative Commons license.) source

11 Apr 2011 14:17

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Politics: Emphasis on the “sideshow”: NY Daily News clowns up Trump

  • Sideshow Don is grinning: The ever-outrageous New York Daily News had some fun with the war of words between Donald Trump and David Plouffe (or, really, between Trump and anyone/thing affiliated with Barack Obama). At least it’s a smiling picture? (EDIT: The cutout of Trump’s hair is easily the worst we’ve ever seen.) source

02 Sep 2009 23:29

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Music: The Revenge of the Revenge of Roxanne Shanté’s Revenge



Nothing like unsubstantiated claims to brighten an evening. Roxanne Shanté, above, was a hip-hop icon before hip hop had its big mainstream breakthrough. Everyone forgot about her for a good twenty years, until this New York Daily News story broke, claiming that Warner Music paid for her to get a doctorate at Cornell. Problem is, it's not true.
  • The lies As reported by the New York Daily News (which will have an interesting retraction to write), the hip-hop icon (who scored her one-hit wonder at 14) had a clause in her contract saying they would pay for her education for life. She fought hard to get the label to pay for her education, eventually earning a doctorate at Cornell in 2001. She’s now a “hip-hop” psychologist.
  • The truth According to Slate, Warner never had a contract with Shanté. School records say that she went to Marymount Manhattan College, but never graduated. She admitted to Slate that she never got a Ph.D. from Cornell or elsewhere. She doesn’t have a license to practice psychology. And Warner says the Daily News never tried to contact them, like the story says.
  • Slate’s dirty workBen Sheffner put together an article for Slate that ranks up there with anything The Smoking Gun has put together in recent memory. It’s just devastating. The way he dissected the Daily News’ article is admirable. The paper only quoted two sources in the article – Shanté and hip-hop Russell Simmons. Protip: When a story’s this good, fact-check your sources. source

28 Jun 2009 21:45

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U.S.: Here’s one of the only Stonewall Riot photos. It’s very iconic.

This photo ran in the New York Daily News on June 29, 1969. The photographer, Joseph Ambrosini, threw his other photos away, sadly. source

30 Apr 2009 08:53

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Sports: Was A-Rod dishonest about his steroid usage? Manboobs say yes.

  • He had a profane nickname in the clubhouse a while back. Baseball’s highest-paid player, Alex Rodriguez, may have been using steroids much longer than he admitted a couple of months ago, the New York Daily News reports. They claim, via Sports Illustrated writer Selena Roberts (who broke the A-Rod steroid scandal in the first place) that Rodriguez was using as far back as high school and as recently as a Yankee. Rodriguez, in 2005, apparently carried a nickname around the clubhouse after he apparently grew manboobs, which may be a hint as to his steroid usage. Either way, it’s the NYDN, so take it with a grain of salt. source