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For more than 20 years, the only media outlet consistently covering alien abductions, werewolf sightings, and the latest on Bat Boy has been the Weekly World News. Faced with a dwindling readership, the venerable paper is packing up its presses and publishing strictly online.
Bat Boy has a special place in my heart.
I had the opportunity to run into my cousin Brad at my sister's wedding about 4 years ago. He had been going through chemotherapy as a cancer treatment. Despite his situation, and the lack of his previous pony-tailed red hair, he made a crack about the new impression he'd been working on.
He pulled back his lips and poked up his ears and proudly proclaimed that he was Bat Boy.
Sadly, he died not too long afterward... But every time since then when Bat Boy has been on the news stands, I recall my cousin showing off his new skill to the table at my sister's reception.
I cannot believe that I heard Wikipedia used as a reference. But I do suppose it's fitting considering the journalistic integrity of the subject.
Those interested in the demise of Weekly World News might want to check out the blog of former managing editor, Bob Greenberger -- http://tinyurl.com/yv83o3 -- in which he tells how the hammer droppped:
"Friday morning, Jeff Rovin comes in for a meeting and then the staff was to be called in. He’s looking harried, not at all relaxed. At 11:30, we’re finally shown into an office where we are told the Board of Directors has chosen to close Weekly World News. The reasons given make no sense. We’re stunned and shell-shocked. We’re to stay on through August 3, finishing the reprint issues and then we’re done. A glorious, funny, odd publication, born in 1979, will go out with a whimper and all I can think is that something’s going on that they’re not telling us because it just doesn’t make sense."
-- SCAM
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