Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for January 16, 2016

Wow, this arc got stupid.

Heh. The tabloids always have to get in there somewhere.

“The various Bureaux of Propaganda and the College of Emotional Engineering were housed in a single sixty-story building in Fleet Street.” – Brave New World

Huxley’s Fleet Street wasn’t terribly different from the real thing, or its American counterpart…

You people go ahead and laugh, but according to the Enquirer, Nancy’s astrologist said a lot of stuff that very nearly came true.

I think the tabloids have been displaced by the sidebars on various news websites. You know, the ones that warn you the stock market is going to lose 90% of its value tomorrow morning.

Back around 1990 I saw one of those “magazines” at the checkout counter at the store. On the cover was the ultimate self parody, a picture of a jet airliner in the clutches of a gigantic bird. That would be worth something now but I wouldn’t be caught dead with something like that in my possession.

The only problem here is that, obviously, the supermarket boys never bother to interview anyone. Their stuff is made up in cubicles in an office building somewhere.

Never put my fingerprints on one, BUT standing in line waiting my turn for loading up the belt at checkout.

Everyone’s commenting as if the tabloids are a historical phenomenon. Sadly, they’re still around, and they still spread the most far-fetched, unprovable rumors in the most sensational style. The big difference now is that the internet matches or exceeds them, both in content and style.

“All the “news” that’s fit to make up."

One of my all-time favorites.

What is the 2nd supermarket guy asking? "slaying MOM, Co-Ed, Self? ????