Comic for august 20th is completed. And it’s off to bed with me.
-me
Virus Comix News
Subnormality and some other stuff too.
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Subnormality and some other stuff too.
Comic for august 20th is completed. And it’s off to bed with me.
-me
August 21, 2011 at 1:26 am
Avogadro sandwich. Heh
August 21, 2011 at 3:22 am
everyone’s a news media person above thirty.
August 21, 2011 at 3:46 am
‘freedom is a gift from the police — the police stop crime, therefore without them we’d all be dead’
it’s astonishing/sickening how many people actually believe that. Up until that point I was thinking this guy was just representing the american news media… then I realized the BBC and RAI news are just as bad.
Anyway, I think too much
Fantastic comic, once again, WR!
-TF
August 21, 2011 at 4:50 am
spot on. i dont think i could ever spend that much time around this guy, its bad enough listening to the mates i have who only get their news from teh primetime tv slots. so ridiculous
August 21, 2011 at 4:58 am
We get the news media that we deserve. Too many of us are willing to blindly eat up the sensationalism and triviality of most news, and as a result, the news media panders to our basest instincts in a vicious cycle. Problem is, it’s getting harder and harder to hold the news media accountable, particularly in this age of instant online publishing — it’s far too attractive (and competitively necessary) for an outlet to be first to publish. One can always publish an ignored retraction later if needed.
August 21, 2011 at 5:54 am
Have you heard of the news media corporations that were found horribly mutilated in the woods?
Yeah, me neither… *sigh*
August 21, 2011 at 5:58 am
Brilliantly sums up why I stopped reading the newspaper and do not watch television. All you get told is random horrible crap.
August 21, 2011 at 7:06 am
Thank you for being a person
August 21, 2011 at 8:38 am
Empirical Discourse was a little younger than News Media, but they were never really good for each other. She had heard about his youth as a long-distance runner, and thought his scandalous time as a libel-spreader was exciting, but safely in the past. However, as he got older, he would just start randomly yelling at people, usually those who couldn’t yell back. And he kept these pets who would bite strangers on every streetcorner.
Discourse was always thorough, never making snap decisions, but eventually she came to the conclusion that News was never really wiser than anybody else.
Lately she’s been at Jstor making eyes at Internet–he’s cute, but he’s a real hot mess. I heard Internet is always acting out and something about a restraining order, but can’t seem to get any accurate information anymore.
August 21, 2011 at 8:56 am
That was a fun read, but I dated the news media, and she was a little more cold-blooded manipulative than you credit. Those ghoul stories to make you fearful and dependent – clutch her arm tightly and ask her what to do — and she’d take you to her friend who sells bear repellent out of a van. But you’re right, being treated as a moron got off-putting eventually.
August 24, 2011 at 1:28 pm
Yeah, same here. I eventually ditched her for a indymedia gal who is way cooler.
August 21, 2011 at 9:17 am
This isn’t showing up on the front page for some reason.
August 21, 2011 at 12:57 pm
It’s fixed now
August 21, 2011 at 9:52 am
Love NM’s mustache–very Cronkite-esque, without the burden of actually being like Cronkite. I can’t tell you how many times I have turned away from the magic mirror asking myself, “in what sense is the alleged picture of Jesus in a tortilla ‘news’?” Of course, my strongest hatred is reserved for the TV and online opinion polls: masses of unscientific, meaningless data collected from people with no discernible qualifications to opine about anything more sophisticated than the quality of county fair corn dogs. Said data then packaged into a manufactured “news” story about how corn dogs are poised to become the new caviar. Video at eleven.
There. I feel better. Thanks for the comic. Great as always.
August 21, 2011 at 10:57 am
I love your comics, and the background touches are brilliant, as usual.
Avogadro sandwich, sand witch, Fawlty Towers, Time is money, litter everywhere with the single litter bin, cat throwing a sack of human into the river.
August 21, 2011 at 5:15 pm
That’s always the (problem) joy of these comics, you have to read them for the content, then go back over them to pay attention to the visuals, then go back over them for all the little stuff and then a final perusal for everything you missed.
The Ford Whatever keeps repeating about once every decade, having owned two in a row, I gave up and buy US assembled Toyotas. Have been happy ever since. The last Ford was a Friday-Monday vehicle that was jigged up so badly that one side had missing spotwelds because there was a 1/2-1 inch gap where the brackets were supposed to seat, so they just bolted it together and hoped some sucker (me) would buy it. Quality is number ???
August 23, 2011 at 12:48 pm
Don’t forget the Pink Haired Girl in the diner and the guy who loves lime green lurking in the clothes store.
August 21, 2011 at 12:00 pm
That was AWESOME, nice ending on that one! BTW, what was the Garfield thing about?
August 24, 2011 at 12:19 pm
Not actually garfield, just a giant orange cat for the purposes of levity.
August 21, 2011 at 1:01 pm
Senor Verde approves of that dark green sweater
August 21, 2011 at 1:35 pm
As usual, you hit the nail right on the fucking head. I used to watch the news but I just couldn’t put up with all the bullshit.
August 21, 2011 at 2:09 pm
Pretty damn accurate, although living in Britain I couldn’t help but feel he wasn’t racist enough.
July 12, 2012 at 9:37 am
Thanx for that.
August 21, 2011 at 2:45 pm
Hey, awesome comic as usual! This just about sums up why I never read the news anymore.
August 21, 2011 at 2:48 pm
Does the Media guy look like Thomas Friedman on purpose?
August 24, 2011 at 12:20 pm
Nope. Had to google that one.
August 21, 2011 at 3:45 pm
Painful, “under my skin”-realistic strip. Overall beautiful!
Further comments would feel almost like … sacrilege.
——————-
ben- waiting for the Champagne/ Pilsner- bottle boson.
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P.s.
Isn’t the sky slightly greenish, after all?
August 24, 2011 at 12:21 pm
Yeah, in retrospect it’s not really all that blue. Ah well…
August 21, 2011 at 5:04 pm
Thanks for summing it all up and saying it like it is. I’m tired of statistically insignificant news being blown out of proportion and news of only regional significance being broadcast as national news. It’s all done to hype the fear factor and keep us sucking at the yellow journalism tit, but has nothing to do with actually solving any of the larger issues that really should be getting our attention. Journalists wonder why we pay less and less attention to their natterings, they should be locked in a room with this comic until they reach enlightenment.
August 21, 2011 at 5:20 pm
If you’d like to set someone back on their heels at dinner or something, point this out: When you look at a story in the papers on a subject you know, you can tell they’re grossly wrong. Then, you go to the VERY NEXT ARTICLE and assume that the exact same author is right? WTF is wrong with you?
August 24, 2011 at 12:22 pm
That’s an incredibly good point actually. The stuff i know about is Never portrayed accurately in the media, yet i take their word for it on everything else. Ugh…
August 21, 2011 at 6:46 pm
Love it!
August 21, 2011 at 8:17 pm
Nice comic as usual. I think its a little myopic to generalize media like that though. There are a lot of good journalists and news networks.
The biggest challenge about watching or reading the news is filtering sensational bullshit and sketchy facts for the solid ones and forming your own opinions. Cant disregard the guardians reporting on the phone hacking or sky’s coverage of Libya or the London riots. Even the medias coverage of Syria and Al Assads crackdown on pro-democratic supporters is putting massive pressure on the UN and other governments to act.
Of course we wont mention politics since news agencies invariably land on one side or the other… That cant really be helped by anyone.
All I’m saying is, its a bit OTT to “switch off” from media just because it shows you mostly miserable stuff plus some waterskiing squirrels.
August 24, 2011 at 12:27 pm
Oh, i know, there are in fact some good media outlets, and even a couple i’d pay to read if they disappeared behind a paywall (the Guardian, for instance). But i’ve definitely switched off from a few specific media outlets just because they increasingly talk about everything except actual news (coughthecbccough). The title of the comic would just be a tad unwieldy if it were “If Some Particular News Outlets (but not all, since it’s impossible to generalize) Were a Person.”
August 24, 2011 at 1:25 pm
Myopic? It’s just the other way around. Mr. Rowntree is being far too kind to our craptastic media corporations. Fully 90% of US television, cable, print and radio is utter contentless shit – sub-moronic least-common-denominator infotainment crapped out for an audience of spineless know-nothing god-bothering drones who think they can lose weight be eating ice cream and evolution is an atheist conspiracy. If it weren’t for a few radio stations and website, plus some foreign media outlets, the US would be an information wasteland.
August 24, 2011 at 3:22 pm
^Sturgeons law in affect
August 21, 2011 at 8:39 pm
Forgot the Advertising Mosquitoes that hover right next to your ears, whining ‘looooook aaaaat meeeeeeeeee’ and make you slap yourself silly trying to hit them.
August 21, 2011 at 8:41 pm
They’re in the same department store as the guy from Huh..Oh
August 21, 2011 at 9:35 pm
I thank Ella Wheeler Wilcox and the concert of the spheres that I haven’t watched television news for close to 15 years… Outstanding analysis, and “that’s the way it is.”
August 21, 2011 at 11:59 pm
Great comic as always. Surprised you didn’t go into the bickering partisan circus that is mainstream American networks, but then again you probably aren’t exposed to that as often as we are down here in good ol’ Murka. This comic is more true of the local news here, if anything, as the bigger channels are too busy coming up with new rhetoric to brainwash people onto their political ‘side’ than they are with actual reporting.
August 22, 2011 at 1:23 am
Awesome comic. Also, duck surprise? XD
August 24, 2011 at 12:30 pm
That’s duck without orange or cherries.
August 22, 2011 at 3:49 am
The guy is right – the sky *isn’t* blue. The dominant visible colour is violet – but our eyes are racist and better at seeing blue.
Let an objective machine look and it will tell you your perspective is, indeed, wrong
Oh, and it is red as well sometimes
August 22, 2011 at 4:01 am
Sounded like she was dating Fox News :p
August 22, 2011 at 6:54 am
Yes, it could only have been Fox News. No other news network is like that at all. *eyeroll*
August 24, 2011 at 3:26 pm
If the shoes fit…
August 22, 2011 at 4:15 am
Violet is just blue in drag :p
August 22, 2011 at 7:21 am
“I just thought it was a neat kind of story”…and the tone is set for the rest of the comic. Very good and funny, as always.
He never mentioned about missing white girls…guess that might have come off creepy, despite normal media’s fascination with it.
Anyone up for some Ice Ream? *snerk*
August 22, 2011 at 9:22 am
Nice one. Yes, I feel like yelling the soul out of journalists sometimes. Actually (forgive me for giving you advice; who do I think I am?) I would have loved a reference to sport journalism and especially sportscasters. Sometimes I believe they actually hate the sport, so they make their best effort to make it as unenjoyable as possible. I thought just Latin American football (soccer) commentators were like that, but then I found American sport pundits to be equally assholey. Exceptions are to be acknowledged, of course.
Anyway, I think media are sometimes infuriating, but you can’t have a democracy without them. Someone has to be there to expose the stink. Maybe that someone is strident, preachy, clumsy and etcetera, but it’s still better than the alternatives: State-controlled media or no media at all.
August 24, 2011 at 12:31 pm
Agreed.
August 22, 2011 at 11:23 am
Great Comic, I enjoyed it thoroughly. It’s sad when you have family who are like this (my step-father is a media junkie as well as a journalist) I e-mailed this to my mother who couldn’t stop laughing because it reminder her of him and partly why she left him also. Keep up the good work
August 22, 2011 at 1:50 pm
I’ve been waiting over a decade to hear a good Avocado/Avogadro joke. Well done sir.
August 24, 2011 at 12:32 pm
I know, it’s about time someone stepped up to the plate.
August 22, 2011 at 2:34 pm
Great comic. Loved the blue sky panel. I’d hate to date that guy. That’s why I hardly watch the news anymore. Too much bad news.
Ah, what the hell, let’s add to the pile : RIP Jack Layton. Canada lost a good man today.
August 24, 2011 at 12:37 pm
Based on all the recollections in the news, i think he was an even better man than anyone thought he was. Very hard to accept that he’s gone. I honestly thought he’d pull through and eventually be the next prime minister. This planet is just a bit much sometimes.
August 22, 2011 at 5:36 pm
Gold again.
August 22, 2011 at 6:26 pm
Poor ron paul ]:
I noticed that you used the subjunctive mood properly with in your dialogue by saying, “.. if you were stupid” , yet fail to do so in the title by using was for a hypothetical situation. I really shouldn’t correct anyone’s grammar as mine is awful just this particular rule really gets to me. I feel a physical sensation when people say things like “if i was…” More of a neurotic thing than a grammar thing really.
August 24, 2011 at 12:39 pm
Point well taken. I generally strive for accurate grammar, and i definitely got i wrong on this one, despite knowing better. It should definitely be “were.”
August 26, 2011 at 5:50 pm
oh my goodness!! you responded (politely!!) !! i am aghast; i feel like a rock star has sweat on me! I do feel considerably cleaner in this case though. Thank you for being a great artist and writer who cares enough about his work to read the comments of his fans and to be self critical. You are a good person.
August 22, 2011 at 7:58 pm
U2 haters gonna hate.
August 22, 2011 at 8:27 pm
U2 lost all their artistic credibility when they played at the Super Bowl. And if you’re going to call me a hater too, I only hate the hateable.
August 22, 2011 at 8:22 pm
Maybe somehow I read the RAW files of this, but it feels like someone was hurt in the making of this strip. Regardless, the visibility of both was stark, and the growing sharpness of character is a looming bo[om/mb] fiction [?][.]
August 22, 2011 at 9:38 pm
Good, ..but wasn’t it too easy? for eveyone reading this there’s 100,000 that gets their news from tv. newspapers are a bit better.
August 23, 2011 at 1:25 am
I just read like half of this comments wall, and I’m noticing a pattern in people who were on the fence/in some disagreement with this comic. They seem to mostly be saying things along the line of, “yeah there’s a lot of shitty news out there, but it’s not ALL awful, and besides, what are the alternatives?”
This sort of dissent reminds me of people standing up for the news in general, wherever I’ve encountered it. I think it is analogous to being in a relationship where he (or she) slaps you around some—maybe verbally, maybe not physically, but it still stings, and he (or she) doesn’t seem to see a need to apologize—and your friend’s response when you complain is, “well he (or she) has some good qualities too, don’t overlook those! And aren’t you overreacting a little? That’s how men (or women) are, you have to learn to deal with it! It’s better than being alone!”
Which is, of course, the essence of this your comic. I have a lot of respect for you, Captain Rowntree; you manage to say things on many levels simultaneously, unapologetically yet sensitively, effectively yet sincerely. A lot of respect. Thank you for making the internet, and the world, A BETTER PLACE.
August 23, 2011 at 1:46 am
You know, it’s funny, I was just having a conversation with my sister today about the insidious nature of most rape. How we have this image of rape as man-in-the-bushes-with-knife, but most rape is someone choosing to ignore when you say no, and pushing you not with physical force, but by casually manipulating your clear vulnerabilities. And how the discrepancy between this type of rape and the image we have of psycho-in-bushes rape makes it easier for people to blame the person being victimized. I think it’s really important not to withhold blame from a system, or action, or person, simply for not being as bad as they COULD be. And I think this applies to our media, which has a great responsibility to society due to their position. They (and I of course acknowledge there are great individuals in the media out there, but this statement is directed to the media as a body) may not be actively skullfucking citizenry and pissing in our faces (in a metaphorical sense, ya know), but they sure as hell are not only neglecting parts of that responsibility, but are violating them as well.
No, the media probably isn’t ending lives with their efforts (well, maybe News of the World, and, uh, possibly some others who haven’t surfaced yet…probably not most of the news though, well, I HOPE). But date rape is still rape; nonviolent rape is still traumatic; and bad reporting is bad reporting is bad reporting. Not that I’m putting it on a LEVEL with rape, but the principle, I think, is the same.
August 23, 2011 at 2:38 am
As a member of the print media I’d like to posit that you’re missing a critical word in your title, Winston.
“Television.”
TV news media will talk for hours over the little boy who was dismembered, well beyond running out of things to talk about. Any print media outside of 300 miles of the incident will dedicate no more than about 5 or 6 inches of text to it per day with that amount dwindling with each press run. And unlike TV news, if you don’t want to read a particular story, you just flip a few pages of ads and blammo, you’re on the next one.
August 29, 2011 at 4:39 pm
Tell us more, Mr. Hearst-Murdoch, how much more mature and tasteful and erudite the print media is, compared to the crass sensationalism of their colleagues.
August 29, 2011 at 5:56 pm
I don’t have to answer anybody who replies in as smarmy a fashion as you did. Try reading a paper other than the New York Post if you want an answer.
August 31, 2011 at 8:16 am
You’re a journalist and that’s the best response you could come up with? I despair for print media..
August 23, 2011 at 2:40 am
That was awesome, and it’s sad that I say it, since I’m a journalist student.
*sigh*
August 23, 2011 at 5:02 am
Well. Guy’s attitude in essence reminds me of me. Great strip.
*sigh* for sure
August 23, 2011 at 5:57 am
I think I may be related to him, actually.
August 23, 2011 at 6:37 am
She is really hard at work on this breakup.
Commendable effort, he might not be woth it.
Great analysis of the human psyche, rolled into an amusin, easy-to-read comic.
Kuddos, as always
August 23, 2011 at 6:06 pm
I work as a newspaper reporter, not for a large corporation or anything but sad to say this is still largely true. Quite frankly, the guy kind of reminds me of myself in SOME aspects. Like I’m totally the guy who points out that there are people who don’t believe the sky is blue. I also can’t help saying “did you know that…” all the time.
I will say, what gets people reading is what gets published. If people stopped reading about the grisly crimes, or if they stopped caring that the skull found behind Lowes was that of a person who’s been missing for 2 years, I wouldn’t have to write that article
.
Still, like all your comments, it’s given me something to think about, and this one hits close to home.
August 23, 2011 at 6:41 pm
HAH. It took me a couple of panels before I goth the metaphor. Great comic, Winston.
August 24, 2011 at 3:47 am
Brilliant !
Piękne dzięki.
August 24, 2011 at 5:43 am
Living in a post-communist country there is a great difference between propagandistic “positive” news and modern splatter. On the other hand, pointless practices like public opinions on continental-scale diplomatic problem (where nobody has even slightest idea what is it about) were used back in 70′s too. Latest freaky thing is sad music added to shots of accidents or disabled people. Only thing I missed in this comic is the funny animal piece in the end.
August 24, 2011 at 9:24 am
I understand that the news shows way too much bad news, especially to do with kids getting abducted and killed. But I think this makes people more aware of the psychos that are out there and in turn makes them more watchful, and this makes it safer for kids. For example, back in the 70′s Rodney Alcala apparently killed 100′s of innocent kids, but if you take 5 mins to talk to some old asshole reminiscing about the “better days” they’ll say “these things didn’t happen in our day”. Well they actually did, and the reason the psycho got away with it is because no one on a nationwide level knew that so many kids were going missing. I mean, so many criminals have been caught just because of the show “America’s most wanted”. So it helps to publicize, rather than have news stories about fucking daisies when bad things are happening all around. It’s a mean world, and the more aware we are, the more likely it is that we are gonna stand up and say “I’m gonna do what I can to make a change”.
July 12, 2012 at 10:05 am
Please just go look at the FBI’s numbers on how many child abductions there are. Then look at the data that shows who most likely abducts a child: Someone whom the child knows, someone close to the family. The media hypes up the rare exceptions and has parents jumping at shadows when the reality is, post-divorce, the person sleeping next to you is most likely to take your child. Also, AMW isn’t a news show. They state the documented facts of the case with a dramatization thrown in for spice then show the face of the perp. I actually kinda wish that the news were that concise rather than the ‘if I run around with a cameraman and a mike that makes me a journalist no matter what i say or where i am’ mentality. Just gimme the facts, I’ll form my own opinion.
August 24, 2011 at 1:09 pm
Bull-Fucking-Shit, Click. You sound just like that media asshole in the comic. Rodney Alcala did not kill “100s of innocent kids”. That’s sub-moronic. 50 is a top-end estimate, probably less, and the majority were prostitutes. Idiotic scare-monging dumbass cable shows written for life-bereft trailer-dwelling know-nothing drama queens inflate the danger of random murder for ratings. It may help your unwarrented sense of superiority to spout idiotic cliches like “it’s a mean world”, but it would be more accurate to say ‘its a stupid world filled with gullible morons.”
August 24, 2011 at 7:50 pm
You make food look so good, and bad at the same time. It’s drawn well, of course, but it makes me hungry.
That’s a compliment.
Yum.
August 25, 2011 at 4:15 pm
@Alan “and the majority were prostitutes”.
Does that really make a difference?
August 25, 2011 at 7:42 pm
Yes, Prostitutes are bad people who deserve to die
August 31, 2011 at 1:26 pm
Only in terms of accuracy.
September 25, 2011 at 6:38 am
Actually, yeah, it does. Prostitutes face that risk all the time, with or without horrible stories in the news. It comes with the job.
September 25, 2011 at 6:44 am
There’s a certain risk that comes with being a soldier, a police officer, and a firefighter as well. Yet it’s always a big deal when one of them is killed in the line of duty.
October 7, 2011 at 8:38 am
It is always a big deal, yeah, but it’s not actually surprising anyone, and such tragic events don’t seem to be caused by lack of gruesome descriptions in the news. Which brings us back to the strip.
August 26, 2011 at 2:14 am
Hey guys!
I recently re-started my blog, and chose this comic as the subject of said blog-post. You guys all seem to have pretty strong opinions about the subject matter of this comic, but I’d love to hear your take on the style of it compared to how I found it.
Although the blog is a bit wordy, I can’t imagine any regular readers of this comic would have issues with a word-count!
Please let me know what you think, either on here or on my blog. Hold no punches.
Check it out! http://cerealforlunch.blogspot.com/2011/08/6-i-am-ass-after-10pm.html
August 26, 2011 at 2:48 pm
I myself have been guilty of what this guy is doin, responses only given to argue while blatantly absconding the other person’s view or justifying any crazy ass thing that spills forth from my maw. Still, people like this bring up such a fun rage.
August 28, 2011 at 12:02 pm
Absolutely loving the Fawlty Towers reference!
“….Duck Surprise?..”
August 30, 2011 at 5:09 pm
U2. Nah – Media is more of a Nikelback type.
August 30, 2011 at 9:23 pm
Hey Winston. Sine I avoid the Cracked comments section like the plague, I’m just coming by here to tell you I love the new comic you put up over there
August 31, 2011 at 5:40 am
Thanks for giving me food for thought, it’s being anorexic lately.
August 31, 2011 at 8:08 am
I never got the whole “you’re just gonna let me walk away” thing. Either you want to end it, or you don’t. Make up your mind and stick with it, damn it. Saying something like that makes your words, and your decisions, worth less.
But yeah other than that, hilarious comic. The news media is creepy.
September 1, 2011 at 7:37 am
Well, although the comic is well-drawn/written, something is missing. Can’t say exactly what, but I don’t see usual “magic” – it is kinda bland (IMO).
By the way… “strip archive” is currently implemented as a drop-down listbox. Which means, I can’t search for comic name using “Ctrl+F”. How about making a full page for comic archive so people will be able to search the text? You could link that page to “strip archive” button and keep the listbox (for “backward compatibility”)…
September 1, 2011 at 1:14 pm
I can’t believe no one has mentioned the presence of “Time” on the currency exchange rate board.
While I’m not criticizing the comic, because I have great respect for the creator, I do feel it would have been even better with the inclusion of Celebrity Worship as another of NM’s annoying characteristics. I don’t know if Canadian media is like this, but US media, especially local news, has an unholy, unhealthy obsession with the minutiae of those even vaguely famous. And they still call it “news,” which is most offensive to me. Imagine this guy gushing like a schoolgirl over so-and-so’s dress or something.
And, to those who decry the state of news media today, it has become so due to money. Cronkite and Murrow weren’t expected to turn a profit, but today’s news outlets are. That’s why they cater to the lowest common denominator, including the Celeb Worship mentioned above.
Nothing is about what it seems anymore. Everything is motivated by profit margins and the bottom line. I’d love to see a Subnormality comic devoted to that idea.
Just sayin’…
September 2, 2011 at 12:49 am
So, the news media basically have Asperger syndrome? That makes so much sense it’s scary.
September 18, 2011 at 5:43 pm
The extra depressing truth of this comic hit me a few hours later, when, longing for a little human contact and not finding any new e-mails or facebook messages, I found myself turning (non-ironically) to a news search to fill that void… and boy, he was everything you depicted.
October 15, 2011 at 12:52 pm
Just a wee note of appreciation! I always enjoy your philosophical artful ruminations.
September 14, 2012 at 10:04 am
I know this guy in real life.