The Beast (newspaper)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Beast | |
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 The 2005-10-19 front page of The Beast |
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| Type | Alternative weekly |
| Format | Tabloid |
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| Owner | Independent |
| Publisher | Paul Fallon |
| Editor | Ian Murphy |
| Editor-in-Chief | Allan Uthman |
| Founded | 2002 |
| Headquarters | 712 Main St. Buffalo, NY 14202  United States |
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| Website: buffalobeast.com | |
- The Daily Beast was a newspaper in the 1938 novel Scoop
The Beast is a Buffalo, New York left-libertarian biweekly newspaper founded by Matt Taibbi and Kevin McElwee in 2002. Buffalo attorney Paul Fallon was instrumental in bringing the necessary resources together, and has been the Publisher of the newspaper since the beginning. The Beast is available in print and online. The current Editor-in-Chief is Allan Uthman, with Ian Murphy handling layout and graphic design. Local musicians and promoters Lee Langenfeld and Craig Robbins invested in the newspaper early on, assisting the Beast team in distribution, ad sales, bar reviews and interviews since issue number three.
The Beast was a sister publication of sorts to the Moscow-based satire rag the eXile, which Taibbi founded earlier, with Mark Ames. Similarities between the two papers included the "Sic" section (in which readers' letters are purposely ridiculed, sometimes very crudely), "Bar-dak" (bar and pub reviews from the editors, sometimes too honest for the liking of the proprietors), "Beast-O-Scopes", political analysis, pranks and featured articles like The 50 Most Loathsome People of 2004.
The inaugural issue of the paper was mailed to all members of the Erie County Green Party, as Paul Fallon was the Party Chairman at the time. Langenfeld and Robbins received copies, and subsequently went down to the Beast headquarters to invest in the paper. Taibbi's guerilla writing style, together with McElwee's mastery of six languages had turned Buffalo on its edge, with scathing criticisms of local media, political commentary and general ridicule of other mainstream institutions. Paul Fallon provided guidance, financial support and direction while performing dual duties as Publisher and in-house attorney. Two of the most notable and funniest pieces from this period were pranks on Buffalo Mayor Anthony Masiello, and detailed transcripts of a visit from the irate Artvoice publisher Jamie Moses to the Beast offices. For the next year or so, Taibbi, McElwee and Fallon continued their full frontal assault of the Buffalo establishment.
Following Taibbi's departure in 2004 to write for the New York Press, Fallon, Langenfeld and Robbins were left to fend for themselves as far as keeping the Beast alive. Fallon provided the money to keep the lights turned on, and hired editor Paul Salamone, along with Brian Sek, Chris Riordian and a host of other zany artist types who made many significant contributions to the Beast cause.
After packing up and moving out to Colorado to get his zen on, Salamone turned the editorial position over to Chris Riordan, a sporadic contributor who steered the paper away from politics and towards the absurd, writing feature stories on demon-summoning and fantasy stories about artificial nipple factories. While working on issue 39, Riordan suffered a nervous breakdown. Unable to cope with going from a care-free life of pot-smoking and making prank phone calls to the top of a masthead without any formal training or help from the rest of the staff, he claims he "flipped his shit" and admitted himself to a psychiatric ward. The paper was then handed to current Editor Al Uthman, who has now held the job longer than any other editor.
The Beast rose to national prominence in 2005 after actor Tom Cruise threatened a lawsuit of The Beast in response to the 2004 Most Loathsome People list and the story broke on national entertainment news programs. Seeing the opportunity for free advertising (and knowing that Cruise had no case), The Beast actively encouraged the lawsuit. [1] Cruise did not file the suit and the controversy died down after several months.
[edit] Contributors
Contributors to The Beast have included
- Matt Taibbi
- Kevin McElwee
- Paul Fallon
- Allan Uthman
- Ian Murphy
- Paul Salamone
- Chris Riordan
- Alexander Zaitchik
- Russ Wellen
- Stan Goff
- William Rivers Pitt
- Andrew Gullerstien
- Ronnie Roscoe
- Kit Smith
- Michael Gildea
- Matt Bors
- Christopher Famighetti
- Lee Langenfeld
- Craig Robbins
- Nick Sorrenti
