Best. Tabloid. Front. Ever.

The New York Post should shut down and all its employees laid off because I don't like the owner's politics!

 

That's hardly what I said.

Murdoch keeps the Post alive because it plays a role in his overall media strategy - part of which is undeniably conservative political theater - as do the WSJ and Fox News, etc.

I'm asking how it's possible that the Post, which everyone everywhere asserts is so popular (and populist) continues to lose scores of millions of dollars ever year.

(PS - I don't think Mr. Murdoch is himself an ideologue. He hires ideologues where necessary, like Roger Ailes, to run things. )

 

But clearly what you want.

 

Nope.

 

We have a new honorable mention recipient.

 

This one from 1989 is still a Top 5 (or Top 10) candidate:

 

Again, another front with the Mets winning. What is it with you people....

 

and "Head had AIDS" gets top billing over the '89 title game?

 

Off-topic, I admit.

Does anyone know where this style of commenting came from, or what perpetuates it: "Best. Tabloid. Front. Ever."

Is this a reference to some line in a movie or something else in popular culture? Why wouldn't one write, "Best tabloid front ever"?

 

Two words: Literary. Effect.

 

I remember seeing it for the first time in a college newspaper in 1987, so it's certainly been around for a while, but it really seems to have become part of the hack writer's toolbox in the past couple of years.

 

I agree. Very similar in annoyance to the overused trope where someone introduces something unexpected by turning a declarative statement into a question, e.g., General Petraeus banging his biographer? General Petraeus banging his biographer."

Deadspin seems to use that format in a headline quite a bit. It used to be a funny way to introduce a shocking story, but now it just comes across as lazy.