Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Weekly World News
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
==General approach to stories== The ''WWN'' traditionally claimed that it always printed the truth, but many stories appeared to have comedic intent – more so as time went by.<ref name="Rossen">{{cite web|url=https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/626827/weekly-world-news-bat-boy-oral-history|title=Bat Boy Lives! An Oral History of ''Weekly World News''|last=Rossen|first=Jake|date=7 August 2020|publisher=MentalFloss.com|access-date=2 September 2020}}</ref> As recalled by Joe Berger, a former White House correspondent who served as a ''WWN'' editor from 1981 to 2001, "About 80 percent of the stories were clipped from newspapers. We had three or four clippers who were surrounded by mountains of newspapers. We spent the day looking at newspapers throughout the world, clipping weird stories. About 50 percent were about people narrowly escaping death; someone falling off a cliff, or hanging off a tree branch for four days until they were rescued."<ref name="Rossen"/> The introduction to ''Batboy Lives!'' states that one person would read the tabloid for real news, whereas another would read it for the humor. The tabloid's main rival ''[[Sun (supermarket tabloid)|Sun]]'' carried a fine print disclaimer, whereas the ''WWN'' never publicly contradicted the accuracy of its own stories until 2004, when it began stating that "the reader should suspend disbelief for the sake of enjoyment." In the 2000s, ''Sun'' moved more toward articles on health and miracle cures, leaving ''WWN'' alone in its niche of supernatural news stories, such as [[Elvis sightings|sightings of Elvis Presley]] and the [[Loch Ness monster]]. Thus, for a significant percentage of its content, the ''WWN'' ran strange-but-true stories, such as "DEVOUT CHRISTIAN ATTACKED – AND HE'S THE ONE FINED!"<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050211205756/http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/features/religion/38719 DEVOUT CHRISTIAN ATTACKED – AND HE'S THE ONE FINED!]</ref> referring to British street evangelist [[Harry Hammond]]. Other verifiable stories included those of a [[Hogzilla|giant mutant hog monster attacking Georgia]]<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050406070659/http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/features/suspects/61293 HOG-ZILLA! MUTANT 12-FT. PIG KILLED IN GEORGIA]</ref> and the arrest of a [[Tallahassee, Florida]], man whose pants were on fire at the time.<ref>Weekly World News, April 2, 2005, p. 25</ref> It reported on the discovery of an infant dragon preserved in formaldehyde proving the existence of dragons,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050209181140/http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/features/suspects/61244 BABY DRAGON IN JAR ROCKS SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY!]</ref> although this was later proven to be a hoax. It also quoted Vatican exorcist Father [[Gabriele Amorth]] on [[Pope John Paul II]]'s battles with Satan<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20041215023332/http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/features/religion/29780 POPE BEATS THE DEVIL—THREE TIMES!]</ref> and ran a story on the trademark dispute between ''[[O, The Oprah Magazine]]'' and a German erotic periodical also named ''[[«O»|O]]''. Whether partially fictional or wholly true, the writing style remained as fact-based as possible. As writer [[Bob Lind]] recalled for ''Mental Floss'', "We wrote these things straight, for people who wanted to believe these things. We wrote it like a news story. We wrote a lede with a dash in it, filled it in, and then had a money quote."<ref name="Rossen"/> In February 1989, ''WWN'' published real, graphic photos on its front page of the post-autopsied body of executed serial killer [[Ted Bundy]]. Managing editor Eddie Clontz defended his decision to run the photos, claiming that he hoped that such images would deter other murderers.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-02-06-mn-1340-story.html|title=MEDIA : Paper Runs Photos of Bundy's Body|date=February 6, 1989|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=July 5, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1356&dat=19890202&id=1rVPAAAAIBAJ&pg=1906,1464030&hl=en|title=Tabloid plans to print Bundy body pictures|last=Lyons|first=Tom|date=February 2, 1989|work=Ocala Star-Banner|page=1|access-date=July 5, 2015|location=Ocala, Florida}}</ref> Angry and surprised officials in Florida vowed to catch the person responsible, eventually arresting a low-level employee of the [[Alachua County, Florida]] Medical Examiner's office and charging him with taking the photographs and selling them to the ''WWN''. As other supermarket tabloids switched to celebrity gossip, the ''Weekly World News'' remained devoted to its original content, refusing to fact-check its way out of a sensational story, or, as Iain Calder, ''WWN'' co-founder and ''Enquirer'' editor-in-chief from 1973 to 1997, told ''Mental Floss'': "We'd say Elvis was still alive and run a picture of what Elvis would have looked like at that time. We'd get dozens of phone calls. If someone calls and says, 'I saw Elvis,' you didn't try to disprove the headline."<ref name="Rossen"/> Derrik Lang, a [[Stringer (journalism)|stringer]] for the paper, said that "everything in my stories was fake – you know, depending on how you define fake."<ref>{{cite news|url= http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_RelishArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1128769074592&path=!entertainment!general!&s=1037645508970|title=Writing for tabloids was out of this world|last=Lang|first=Derrik J.|work=Winston-Salem Journal|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070930165052/http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_RelishArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1128769074592&path=!entertainment!general!&s=1037645508970|archive-date=September 30, 2007|date=January 5, 2006}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20151001054406/https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/ParanormalGhostSociety/conversations/topics/33345 Alt URL]</ref> Common ''WWN'' stories involved alien abductions, the Loch Ness monster, [[Bigfoot]], time travel, predictions of an oncoming depression or apocalypse, and other newly found lost prophecies or religious relics. There were also characters who, in later years, became stock fixtures in ''WWN'' news stories, most famously [[Bat Boy (character)|Bat Boy]], a half-bat half-boy discovered in West Virginia caverns, and [[P'lod]], an extraterrestrial who became involved in Earth politics and had an affair with [[Hillary Clinton]].
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)