Let’s observe a moment of irreverent silence please ………
The world’s most sensational fake newspaper is going out of business! After 28 years of journalistic jesting, the August 27th edition of the Weekly World News was the final printing of this paragon of print pretense.
I for one, am going to miss such headlines as:
“Alien Bible Found – They Worshipped Oprah”
“Bigfoot Kept Lumberjack as Love Slave”
“Abraham Lincoln Was a Woman”
“Preacher Explodes During Sermon” (add your own comment)
“Man Poses as CPR Dummy to Meet Women”
“Seeing Eye Squirrels for Blind Dogs”
“Sadaam and Osama Adopt Shaved Ape Baby” (I’m not making these up)
“500 ft. Jesus Appears at U.N.”
“Man Marries Computer – Becomes Gigamist”
“Bat Child Found in Cave” (this spawned many headlines and even a musical)
“Heaven Photographed by Hubble Telescope”
“Statue of Elvis Found on Mars!” (more “Elvis sighting" headlines than you’d ever believe!)
I’m probably a little sadder than you are because the only national publication I’ve ever appeared in was the …… you guessed it … the Weekly World News. About ten years ago they featured some weird article about angels actually being aliens from outer space. Somehow they found my book, “Do Angels Really Exist” and even printed a picture of the book, and my picture beside it. They quoted a short section from my description of Ezekiel’s vision of the fiery wheel and the cherubim, where I mentioned that some people speculate that this description sounds similar to modern descriptions of UFO’s. So, that was my claim to national attention – and I think I probably sold three more books because of that erudite endorsement!
At its height of popularity, in the 1980’s, WWN had a readership of 1.2 Million, last year that number fell to 83,000. It’s banner on the cover originally said, “NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH” until too many lawsuits convinced the publishers to add this caveat to each issue: “The reader should suspend disbelief for the sake of enjoyment.” It only had two writers, but they used pseudonyms to make it appear that more people worked there.
In commenting on the death of the WWN, Columnist Joel Stein made this sarcastic observation: “It’s actually a sign of progress for a society to go from inventing gods and monsters to seeking catharsis in the real life of Paris Hilton.”
Now that the Weekly World News has gone to that great printing press in the basement, what will we have to peruse in a slow-moving checkout line at Brookshire’s Grocery Store? Oh, yeah, the number of celebrity-obsessed gossip magazines are multiplying like … well, like Elvis sightings.
In a world full of so much junk and gossip, isn’t it refreshing to open the Word of God and feast on the REAL TRUTH? Jesus said to His Father, “Your word is truth.” (Jn 17:17). Newspapers and magazines come and go, but the WORD OF GOD ENDURES FOREVER!
