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Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
In the tabloid tradition, a good headline must do three things: it must communicate the news; it must commit some act of wordplay; and it must trigger a certain popping of the eyes in its reader, ideally accompanied by some kind of involuntary subverbal response—a squawk, a snort, a guffaw, a gasp. On Thursday, just minutes after Jeff Bezos revealed that American Media, Inc., had threatened to publish explicit photographs of him unless he acquiesced to certain demands, tabloid-headline excellence was achieved, when HuffPost declared, on its home page, "Bezos Exposes Pecker." "Pecker," of course, referred to David Pecker, the chairman and C.E.O. of A.M.I.—the same Pecker who, during the 2016 Presidential election, facilitated a payment to a woman who had a story to tell about an affair with Donald Trump.
[...] The headline was the work of Hayley Miller, a HuffPost reporter in New York whose workday had already ended when the Bezos news came out. [...] The idea for "Bezos Exposes Pecker" came to her quickly, but she hesitated before sharing it. On one hand, she said, "I was just, like, Oh, my gosh, this is gold—got to do this." On the other hand, she considered, "Do I want to bother my colleagues with another dick pun?" In the end, she went for it. "Trusted my gut, I guess," she said.
Whitney Snyder, a HuffPost deputy editor [...] explained that this wasn't the first time the Web site's Slack channels had been peppered with Pecker puns. "We did have a bit of a rehearsal in August," he said, referring to the day that Pecker's immunity deal with federal prosecutors was reported. "We ran a headline that was 'Report: Trump Loses Pecker.' "
Previously: Jeff Bezos Accuses National Enquirer of Blackmail
(Score: 3, Funny) by Thexalon on Tuesday February 12 2019, @07:10PM (8 children)
Back in my younger years, I met my congressman, whose name was, I'm not kidding, Dick Swett [congress.gov]. I kept my cool, but I have to admit I always wondered "Why didn't this guy go by 'Richard', 'Rich', or 'Rick'?"
Of course, his plight wasn't half as bad as our classmate who was stuck with an unfortunate last name pronounced "za-hore".
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Tuesday February 12 2019, @07:14PM (5 children)
Used to be a NASCAR driver named Dick Trickle. He retired about 10 years ago.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Tuesday February 12 2019, @08:13PM (4 children)
There is a ton of shit in New York named after Robert Wood Johnson [wikipedia.org] of Johnson & Johnson fame. And it is always with the middle name. And theres a bunch of generations of his decedents with the same name that keep naming things after themselves.
I wish one of them had a kid named Richard, though.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 4, Funny) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday February 12 2019, @10:09PM (2 children)
When President Nixon resigned, should the headline have been "America loses Dick" or "America cuts Dick"?
Shortly after that change of presidents, it was "America pulls out of Vietnam".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 12 2019, @11:22PM (1 child)
I assume american media picked up on the combination of Bush and Dick too?
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Sunday February 17 2019, @04:38PM
George Carlin pointed out that both Iraq Wars were run by Dick, Bush, and Colin.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 12 2019, @10:11PM
I went to school with a Richard Johnson. We never called him dick though.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday February 12 2019, @07:39PM
You'll get a warm fuzzy feeling when you chuckle at his name, and when the people in your community need to vote, "Remember the name, you know he's familiar -- Dick Swett!"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 13 2019, @02:05AM
"Buttcrack Plumbing" was in the local yellow pages.