Site Meter Reflections on Playboy: Playboy.com’s cowardly attack on the Tea Parties

April 30, 2009

Playboy.com’s cowardly attack on the Tea Parties

“Why can’t Playboy think about greed the way it thinks about lust?” I asked three months ago. Against its own best interests and purpose, the magazine has lent support to the big-government zeitgeist of the Bush-Obama era—as if there were something inherently greedy about fearing the government’s wish to tax and spend, borrow and spend, or micromanage. It’s hard to have the patience to keep paying attention to what the organization says on the subject, which is why Megan McArdle of The Atlantic scooped me on Playboy.com’s unhelpful contribution to the reporting of the “Tea Party” rallies. (Hat tip: Reason.com.)

Some time before the official Playboy Blog was transformed into the online Playboy Forum this year, a link to one of its posts went dead. This might have covered up their shoddy investigative journalism, except that McArdle copied and pasted it in the nick of time. On virtually no incriminating evidence, Mark Ames and Yasha Levine claimed that the Tea Parties did not arise from the true feelings of the populace, but were slick fabrications of right-wing moneyed interests. Unsubstantiated though it was, the claim was soon endorsed by no less than Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman. For many in the news media, this gave license to intellectually disenfranchise the protesters with tactics such as crude double entendres about “teabagging.” I like a dirty joke as much as anyone, but that’s fucked up.

“Playboy either needs to stand by the article and put it back up, or explain why they took it down—and why they put it up in the first place,” concludes McArdle. I agree wholeheartedly. Speaking of teabagging, where are your balls, Playboy?

Update, 12:50 p.m.: How could I be so careless? I’ve had to change “the big-government zeitgeist of the Obama era” to “the big-government zeitgeist of the Bush-Obama era.”

Posted by Brian Sorgatz at 11:09 AM

  • Blogger Horatio left this comment at April 30, 2009 1:21 PM  
    I'm shocked! Sometimes I wish specialized niche market media would stay out of controversial subjects. Even comic books can have agendas these days.

    And those teabagging jokes got old fast. I think it was MSNBC where the "journalist" described the events, and what they wanted to accomplish and/or do to the White House and/or Obama, as teabagging no less than two dozen times. She also laughed and/or giggled after every one.

  • Blogger Brian Sorgatz left this comment at April 30, 2009 1:27 PM  
    Sometimes I wish specialized niche market media would stay out of controversial subjects. Even comic books can have agendas these days.

    To be fair, everybody has a right to a point of view.

  • Blogger Earl left this comment at April 30, 2009 6:33 PM  
    Hugh Hefner needs to be frog prepped.

  • Blogger Brian Sorgatz left this comment at April 30, 2009 7:11 PM  
    Let’s not be that harsh to Mr. Hefner. He has helped many libertarian causes, including marijuana law reform.

    • Post a Comment

    « Home

    Create a Link