What did I do wrong?

November 5, 2009 1:40 PM

Why is Glenn NOT being killed in a horrible accident NOT best of the web?

Last night, I dared to mount a FPP which consisted of a single link to an Onion News Network story: Victim in Fatal Car Accident Tragically not Glenn Beck. Upon waking this morning, I noticed it had been deleted. After patiently (and vainly) waiting all morning for it to pop up in Deleted Threads, so I could read the reason for the deletion, I now feel compelled to nudge the issue a bit.

Was it deemed:

1. just not funny?
2. offensive?
3. too thin?
4. in contravention of some unknown (to me at least) rule about single-linking to The Onion?
5. other?

Please educate me. I just watched the clip again and, no it wasn't just the beer I drank last night, it's a darned funny piece of satire that works on more levels than one.

posted by philip-random to Etiquette/Policy at 1:40 PM (78 comments total)

Because everybody reads The Onion.

It's been one of those rules pretty much from Year One that single-link posts to The Onion don't survive.
posted by Kattullus at 1:42 PM on November 5, 2009

You can always read the reason for deletion at the URL for the original post which is in the email you get from mathowie saying "success your post is live!" The link was funny but single link onion posts are one of those things that we presume everyone may have already seen. Plus the Glenn Beck thing.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 1:44 PM on November 5, 2009

Yeah, SL Onion Posts are pretty much always a no-go. Beyond that, everyone is fucking sick of articles/conversations about fucking Glenn Beck on the front end. Glenn Beck is fucking batshitinsane. We all agree. Don't beat a dead horse; cross yourself and walk away.
posted by Lutoslawski at 1:46 PM on November 5, 2009 [5 favorites]

it's a darned funny piece of satire that works on more levels than one.

So build a post that reflects that. Still might get deleted though.
posted by hermitosis at 1:49 PM on November 5, 2009

You don't want that guy dying just yet. He'll become some kind of martyr for the crazies.
posted by Burhanistan at 1:52 PM on November 5, 2009 [1 favorite]

I won't go into the whole what Glenn Beck hasn't denied thing, but I did think it was funny I actually heard him do this.

Al Gore Al Gore has never denied eating monkey brains! 3:23 mark.
posted by cjorgensen at 1:55 PM on November 5, 2009 [1 favorite]

We can't make fun of Glenn Beck anymore. He's a sacred cow.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:57 PM on November 5, 2009 [1 favorite]

After patiently (and vainly) waiting all morning for it to pop up in Deleted Threads

Deleted threads is one mefite blogging. He updates when he can, but I don't think the blog is currently the highest thing on his list of priorities, so don't expect constant up to the minute updates. He'll get around to adding your post, but you've got your answers.
posted by goshling at 1:58 PM on November 5, 2009 [1 favorite]

it's a darned funny piece of satire that works on more levels than one.

So build a post that reflects that. Still might get deleted though.

Well, the double satire's all in the single link: as much about how absurd our hate for Beck has become as it is about what an insufferable !#$#@% Mr. Beck is ... if you follow. Being essentially a joke, the last thing I wanted to do is explain it as I was posting it.

I agree that one could do a much deeper and more thoughtful post about Beck-HATRED ... but nevertheless felt that this particular link, standalone, was worthy ...

Anyway, seeing that there is in fact some kind of NO-ONION policy (because we all already go there anyway), I guess I have my answer.

Thanks.
posted by philip-random at 1:59 PM on November 5, 2009

He's a sacred cow.

No, it's that it's lazy. We've seen it dozens of times in posts already in the last few months and if you're gonna make a Glenn Beck HA HA post, it has to be really good since we've done it so many times.

It's kind of like when we had to stop having so many "Bush is dumb as a monkey" posts on MeFi. It wasn't that we liked him or felt like protecting him, it just got tiresome.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 2:02 PM on November 5, 2009 [4 favorites]

Please--PLEASE--can someone tell me why a single-link post to the Onion is not OK, but a single-link post to the NY Times (particularly to the Sunday Magazine cover article) is OK?

I don't deny that this Glenn Beck post should have been deleted. But we have metric shit-tons of SLNYT posts, and they are so very lazy. I expect more people on Metafilter read the NYT regularly than the Onion. A SLNYT post is not some incredible internet find--why here it is, above the fold on the front page of today's paper.

Thank you, I'll take my answer off the air.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 2:02 PM on November 5, 2009 [4 favorites]

Great. Now that this is all worked out, how about going in and killing all the boob talk in here?
posted by Burhanistan at 2:02 PM on November 5, 2009 [1 favorite]

I love this Onion, I love it so much. It doesn't say anything at all, but it makes me so so happy because my hate of Glenn Beck is not that pathetic.
posted by The Devil Tesla at 2:03 PM on November 5, 2009 [1 favorite]

What did I do wrong?

Two things, both of which are unwritten Metafilter no-no's (because we've seen them so many times) which you probably unaware of due to the fact that they're, y'know, unwritten:

Thing One: SLOP (Single-Link Onion Post)

Thing Two: Special Snowflake ("Why was my post deleted MetaTalk Post")
posted by dersins at 2:03 PM on November 5, 2009 [4 favorites]

It's been one of those rules pretty much from Year One that single-link posts to The Onion don't survive.

There have been a few exceptions, including the Ocular Penetration Restriction Act and the Macbook Wheel.

Why is our policy on Onion links so arbitrary? I'm inclined to fault the best-laid plans of mice and men.
posted by Iridic at 2:04 PM on November 5, 2009

Admiral Haddock: Please--PLEASE--can someone tell me why a single-link post to the Onion is not OK, but a single-link post to the NY Times (particularly to the Sunday Magazine cover article) is OK?

That's been the subject of much debate in the past. I'd hazard to guess that it's simply that the main reason is that the cover pieces in the NYT Sunday Magazine are longer than Onion articles (in other words, there's more to them, in terms of material).
posted by Kattullus at 2:07 PM on November 5, 2009

...and substance.
posted by cjorgensen at 2:10 PM on November 5, 2009 [1 favorite]

can someone tell me why a single-link post to the Onion is not OK, but a single-link post to the NY Times (particularly to the Sunday Magazine cover article) is OK?

I'm guessing there's just way more to the NYT in terms of sheer volume of information. The Onion might publish as much fresh material in a year as the NYT does in a day, which makes a "FIND" at the Onion a little less remarkable than the NYT. It's the same argument that allows for SLYTs.

Or put more succinctly: "We all do our own Onion filtering."
posted by philip-random at 2:13 PM on November 5, 2009 [2 favorites]

No, it's that it's lazy.

Maybe. I sent philip a MeMail about his post after it got deleted. In some ways it may be a bit more subtle about who is being made fun of than most people here give the joke credit for. Maybe too subtle to keep from being deleted.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:16 PM on November 5, 2009

can someone tell me why a single-link post to the Onion is not OK, but a single-link post to the NY Times (particularly to the Sunday Magazine cover article) is OK?

Some back-story. Or back-fable, maybe.

It's just been done so thoroughly that people got very, very sick of it after a while, and that feeling has pretty much remained. See also the saturation of cracked.com links that ended up leading to some vocal backlash against such stuff more recently.

Just an Onion link is a pretty poor gamble for a post most of the time. Not impossible to pull off, the winds might be friendly that day if it's a particularly funny one, but all in all it's fairly tired. Throw in some more Glenn Beck stuff on top and ugh.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:17 PM on November 5, 2009

... and I just realized that I left "Beck" out of my front page headline for this thing. Apologies to all Glenns out there.
posted by philip-random at 2:17 PM on November 5, 2009

Adm Haddock, sir, I have asked myself that same question many a time.
posted by crush-onastick at 2:21 PM on November 5, 2009

To be clear, we can still make fun of Sarah Palin though, right?

We should get a preemptive ruling on this, since I hear she has a new book coming out.
posted by cjorgensen at 2:22 PM on November 5, 2009

The correct way to post an Onion link is to create a normal post that would stand on its own about a topic and then throw in the Onion link as a bonus.

Since we've done Glenn Beck to death already, I'd think it would have to be a hell of a FPP to pull that off with this one.

Here's a good example from a while back
posted by empath at 2:23 PM on November 5, 2009

"Sheer volume" doesn't mean much when we're talking about the cover of the Sunday Magazine. Countdown to the post about the Year in Ideas, 2009...

I agree that Onion is a one-trick pony, but it's a pretty amusing trick. Nonetheless, I can see how it gets old. And to me, the NYT never gets old. I imagine many MeFites feel the same way. But it still doesn't make a great post. PUT SOME MEAT ON THEM BONES, SLNYTers!
posted by Admiral Haddock at 2:24 PM on November 5, 2009

Btw -- this thread is now about the best Onion articles of all time -- name your top 3:

Mine are these:

We're doing five blades!

Our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is over.

Angry God clarifies "Don't kill" rule.
posted by empath at 2:28 PM on November 5, 2009

(i haven't read the onion in 8 years)
posted by empath at 2:28 PM on November 5, 2009

To be clear, we can still make fun of Sarah Palin though, right?

The most flagged deleted post I've seen in 2009 was about Sarah Palin and her upcoming book. I think, like the Beck stuff, if you can't do anything that isn't a Nelson-style point-and-haha, I wouldn't bother.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:38 PM on November 5, 2009

Don't beat a dead horse; cross yourself and walk away.

BEATEN DEAD HORSE TRAGICALLY NOT GLEN BECK
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 2:39 PM on November 5, 2009 [13 favorites]

Unrelated question, but kind of on the same subject of "why does mefi do this? why does mefi do that?"

Why does almost every discussion about race change into a discussion about class?
Why does almost every discussion about class change into a discussion about personality or values?
posted by Eleutherios at 2:44 PM on November 5, 2009

Why the hell are single link Onion posts deleted and single link YouTube posts kept?
posted by xmutex at 2:44 PM on November 5, 2009 [2 favorites]

I don't make an extra effort to watch Glen Beck, but if it's on I'll sit through a few minutes of it because it's such a farce.

It's the same dead horse that Ann Coulter / Rush Limbaugh / Bill O'Reilly ride, the whole operation feels like a racket made to divide the country using the pettiest of excuses. Or to sell books, gotta put food on the table somehow.

Basically, there's nothing to talk about, none of these characters want to present a valid topic, bringing them up causes so much wasted breath. That's why Beck and, by extention, your video post was pulled. The ensuing discussion would be the same one we have had hundreds of times before (and will have hundreds of times again) about how right wing personality XYZ's existance harshes our general lifebuzz.

But it's kind of cathartic.
posted by hellojed at 2:45 PM on November 5, 2009

I'm a horrible person, because my longstanding favorite is this:

Christopher Reeve Placed Atop Washington Monument
posted by Skot at 2:45 PM on November 5, 2009

BEST of ONION: Columbine Jocks Safely Resume Bullying

So good it's not even funny. Seriously.
posted by philip-random at 2:45 PM on November 5, 2009

Why the hell are single link Onion posts deleted and single link YouTube posts kept?

Because, as noted above, The Onion posts maybe two dozen (at most) pieces of new content per week, and thus requires little (meta)filtering for people to be able to find the interesting stuff. Youtube, on the other hand, probably has about that many pieces of new content every second.
posted by dersins at 2:47 PM on November 5, 2009

Why the hell are single link Onion posts deleted and single link YouTube posts kept?

The answer could in here.
posted by philip-random at 2:47 PM on November 5, 2009

The Onion is a content provider and YouTube is a medium?

Why does almost every discussion about race change into a discussion about class?

For a good while there was at least one MeFite how was hellbent on this happening. Part of the longer answer to this question is that American is weird about race and class, seeing a lot of the former and much less of the latter and it seems to get people confused about what's really happening.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:50 PM on November 5, 2009

Wait, if I linked to an Onion article about a Cracked.com list of great things about Mad Men then filmed myself doing it and posted it on YouTube, that would only be bad because it would be a self-link right?
posted by GuyZero at 3:00 PM on November 5, 2009 [6 favorites]

deleted posts script
posted by mlis at 3:01 PM on November 5, 2009

YouTube is a medium?

Unfortunately, no. It's XL.
posted by GuyZero at 3:07 PM on November 5, 2009

it's a darned funny piece of satire that works on more levels than one.

This kind of reads like a quote from an Onion.

OH THE IN-HU-META
posted by KokuRyu at 3:12 PM on November 5, 2009

Why is Glenn NOT being killed in a horrible accident NOT best of the web?

Because he DIDN'T die... duh.




oh sorry, no advocating death, even Glenn Beck's. My bad.
posted by dnesan at 3:17 PM on November 5, 2009 [1 favorite]

My favorite Onion article because some of my projects feel like this: 5-year study
posted by Edward L at 3:24 PM on November 5, 2009 [1 favorite]

Classic Onion: Federal Judge Rules Parker Brothers Holds Monopoly Monopoly
posted by hwyengr at 3:43 PM on November 5, 2009

You kids. In my youth I wore The Onion in my belt, because that was the fashion at the time.
posted by qvantamon at 3:45 PM on November 5, 2009 [2 favorites]

On that note: Suicide Letter Full Of Simpsons References.
posted by hawthorne at 4:06 PM on November 5, 2009 [3 favorites]

I know this post deleted with good reason, but I need to say this:

that onion video was fucking hysterical.
posted by shmegegge at 4:40 PM on November 5, 2009 [1 favorite]

There's also a lot less variety to what the Onion does than what the NYTimes does, or what you find on YouTube. The folks at the Onion are good enough writers and what it does, it does well...but there is something to, 'If you've seen three Onion articles, you've seen 'em all." Which isn't true of NYTimes, etc.
posted by cribcage at 4:53 PM on November 5, 2009 [1 favorite]

Best of the Onion? No contest: Cheney Waits Until Last Minute Again To Buy Sept. 11 Gifts. Particularly the traditional Onion last-line-punchline.
posted by gimonca at 5:16 PM on November 5, 2009 [1 favorite]

Broseidon, lord of the brocean:
Bro, You're a God Among Bros
posted by Nattie at 5:45 PM on November 5, 2009 [1 favorite]

I flagged it on feed the troll grounds. I refuse to get suckered into playing an endless game of douchebag fake journalist whack a mole. Ignore and move on.
posted by BrotherCaine at 6:18 PM on November 5, 2009

It would be more Best Of The Web if you linked to something timely, like Cheney shooting his BUDDY IN THE FACE!!!!

That would be cool, hip and relevant.

Other than that, you did nothing wrong.

Take it to AskMe
posted by Nick Verstayne at 6:49 PM on November 5, 2009

Not funny. Too thin. Local news.
posted by pompomtom at 8:22 PM on November 5, 2009

You know what, I think I'm probably one of the leftier people on this site, and I think I'm a lot more tolerant of the concept of politically-motivated violence than most here, too.

But the Glenn Beck video seems over the line to me.
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:11 PM on November 5, 2009

Okay, I get it. Bad post for any number of reasons. And this META is a bad post, too. [special snowflake] I never got that reference and now, suddenly, I do. I'm sorry. I won't do it again.

BUT
[it's all bullshit before the BUT]

Let me please throw this out at those who have deemed the offending clip unfunny: do you think it's unfunny because it's a hate-on directed at Mr. Beck, and you're tired of those?

It's not directed at Mr. Beck. It's directed at the haters. I'm still laughing. And I hate Glenn Beck.

The answer is probably 42.
posted by philip-random at 10:04 PM on November 5, 2009

Was it deemed:
1. just not funny?
2. offensive?
3. too thin?
4. in contravention of some unknown (to me at least) rule about single-linking to The Onion?
5. other?

Yes.
posted by dg at 1:04 AM on November 6, 2009

Our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is over.

Wow, I missed that one the first time around. So horrifyingly true, especially in retrospect.
posted by Go Banana at 5:04 AM on November 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

Let me please throw this out at those who have deemed the offending clip unfunny: do you think it's unfunny because it's a hate-on directed at Mr. Beck, and you're tired of those? It's not directed at Mr. Beck. It's directed at the haters. I'm still laughing. And I hate Glenn Beck.

Whether or not it's directed at the haters seems to be kind of a gray area. If it were more clearly "directed at the haters," maybe. But it seems that the Beck/Haters question is somewhat up for debate, or is so subtle as to cause undue confusion in the reader. (In other words: I didn't get that it was directed at the haters at all -- but that doesn't mean you're wrong, that just means that it's something people are going to come to different interpretations about).

And even if it were more clearly directed at teh haterz, it's also coming on the heels of a CRAPTON of Beckania, and we're all still in "omigod SO SICK OF THIS" knee-jerk mode when it comes to Beck -- so Beck's even being ASSOCIATED with it would cause a prejudicial reaction. It could have been about Glenn Beck donating his entire fortune to Obama and then going to become a Tibetan monk, you'd still have people saying "I AM SO SICK OF HEARING ABOUT THAT GUY SHUT UP ALREADY".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:45 AM on November 6, 2009

Greatest. Daily Show. Ever.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 8:54 AM on November 6, 2009 [13 favorites]

Roof On Fire Claims Lives Of 43 Party People
posted by kirkaracha at 9:05 AM on November 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

Thanks for that, kirkaracha. I laughed until I stopped. I now feel good about having posted this, my first Meta. Not because, in the end, it feels justified. I could just as easily have gotten my answer (What did I do wrong?) with an email to one of the mods.

But if I'd gone that route, I would never have read about the "Roof On Fire Claims Lives Of 43 Party People", and the world would be a slightly less mirthful place. My world anyway.
posted by philip-random at 10:09 AM on November 6, 2009

I'm down with the general principles of deletion being cited here, but that TPM Jon Stewart parody doesn't just knock the ball out of the park, it knocks it out of the timezone.

Best of the Media, not just best of the web, and I guess everybody does know about it by now, but I think it's too bad it went.
posted by weston at 10:13 AM on November 6, 2009 [4 favorites]

The minute I saw Jon Stewart on the Daily Show last night, I thought, "That would be perfect for Mefi, but it's off-limits because it's about Glenn Beck."

And that made me sad, because it is AWESOME.

So I'm glad the parody at least made it to this thread.
posted by misha at 10:30 AM on November 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

The Daily Show is great, but pretty much everybody knows about it at this point. If you want to talk about Glenn Beck come hell or highwater, there's a sort of quasi-discussion in Metatalk right now. -- cortex

Everybody knows about The Daily Show? or everybody knows about that particular clip? Because if you meant the latter, I totally disagree.
posted by gman at 10:35 AM on November 6, 2009

I don't think anybody knows about every clip on The Daily Show. I do think people who (a) watch The Daily Show regularly or (b) pay any amount of attention to the ongoing Glenn Beck media experience or (c) pay any amount of attention to the general political/news blog sphere have a very, very good chance of being aware of that clip within the next 24 hours, though, if they aren't already.

Add that to the relatively pervasive coverage TDS has gotten on mefi over the years and the obnoxious amount of post and comment traffic we've seen specifically re: Glenn Beck more recently and how badly those latter conversations tend to go, and it pushes the bar up pretty high for "well-known comedian known to dislike well-known blowhard makes fun of blowhard on really high-visibility show, here's a clip", which likely explains why the thing was getting instaflagged.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:51 AM on November 6, 2009

The 11/3 Project - Jon Stewart goes all Glenn Beck on us ... for Canadians.
posted by philip-random at 10:51 AM on November 6, 2009

Broseidon, lord of the brocean:
Bro, You're a God Among Bros

Oh, man, Brocephus, you gone and opened up a sweet vein of Onion awesome like a night-stalking brosferatu right there
posted by kittens for breakfast at 11:07 AM on November 6, 2009

Yes, that Jon Stewart clip is definitely best of the web and deserves widespread coverage.
posted by vac2003 at 12:10 PM on November 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

I posted the Stewart clip this morning, but Cortex said no go.
posted by diogenes at 12:58 PM on November 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

I thought maybe the awesome power of alliteration would put it over the top.

I really do think it's the best Daily Show clip I've ever seen. I laughed about 10 times while watching it, and it actually conveys something important about the state of affairs.
posted by diogenes at 1:05 PM on November 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

And now filthy light thief's gone and taken this satire thing to the front page ...
posted by philip-random at 2:02 PM on November 6, 2009

Single link anything = not best of the web. Really pretty much period.
posted by TomMelee at 5:27 AM on November 7, 2009

> Single link anything = not best of the web. Really pretty much period.

This is pernicious bullshit and I wish people would stop saying it.
posted by languagehat at 6:13 AM on November 7, 2009 [4 favorites]

What's pernicious mean?
posted by cjorgensen at 7:43 AM on November 7, 2009

And there is another open Glenn Beck post on the front page.

Also, I agree with languagehat. Some of the best posts on here are 1 link posts. We can't all be filthy light thiefs.
posted by cjorgensen at 7:58 AM on November 7, 2009

pernicious means deleterious or malefic
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 8:41 AM on November 7, 2009 [2 favorites]

What's pernicious mean?

The term is pretty much period.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:17 AM on November 8, 2009

pernicious: adjective. causing great injury, destruction, or ruin; fatal; deadly; Rare wicked; evil.

Wow, that's way worse than I thought. I tend to use it to refer to something that is both annoying and resilient, kind of like a mosquito buzzing your ear in the night.
posted by philip-random at 9:49 AM on November 8, 2009