A reader sent in a quote from this month’s Playboy. They understand.
As politics go, we’re surprised so many readers expect us or any publication to provide “balance,” which reflects a belief in the fallacy that there are two equally valid sides to every story. You see this in the debate over global warming and evolution. Thousands of scientists stand on one side of the issue, recognizing that global warming is a problem and that evolution is firmly established, while only a few detractors stand on the other.
Move over, NY Times. Playboy has a more principled journalistic philosophy than you do (or at least, than some of your staff.)
I’d start reading the magazine, except that every time I’ve opened a copy, I find that I can’t quite get past the pictures. They’re too purty.
SUUUURE a reader “sent” you the quote…
Hmmm, whoever sent you the quote is one of those mysterious people who buy Playboy “for the articles”.
As for pictures in there, I guess Playboy has no problem highlighting EVERY angle possible, not just two.
Being no prude I find it hard to believe that my favorite blogger actually finds the Playboy pix ‘purty’.
I haven’t seen it for years, but last I looked they were all silicone and makeup and very sterile.
Are you just saying that to be ‘one of the guys’ or do you REALLY mean it?
I’m a big fan of skillful airbrushing.
PZ-
Some advice on breaking the porn habit, from “God’s girl~~~~~”:
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=13040771&blogID=141575694
Excerpt:
4. Grasp the serious nature of your sin. Jesus said that it would be better for you to be blind and go to heaven, than for your eye to cause you to sin and end up in hell (Matthew 5:29).
5. Those who profess to be Christians yet give themselves to pornographic material evidently lack the fear of God (Proverbs 16:6). Cultivate the fear of God by reading Proverbs 2:1 – 5.
(JG is on this woman’s case)
What the hell does ‘purty’ mean?
But isn’t that what you usually do while you’re looking at the pictures?
Just because we are rational doesn’t mean we have to be the foe of beauty!
Seriously, I just picked up the big ol’ coffee table book of all the Playboy centerfold models up to the early 2000s. David ain’t joking when he complains about the shaved and sterile models, especially for the recent years. The early years, though: definitely some va-va-voom there.
And, oh, Playboy has been famous for printing articles and interviews that stand well above other standards of journalism.
Nice quote, anyway. My SO (who approves of the Playboy book, BTW) has the dubious honour of sometimes trying to explain to undergrads that not all “issues” have “sides that must be treated equally. Some of these kids are under the impression that anybody can come up with some hare-brained notion that must be treated on equal ground with real ideas. We have fun ridiculing their essays sometimes.
Playboy has the luxury of not being perceived of as “serious” journalism. Papers like the NYT and WaPo are full of themselves, so they have to be fair and unbiased and give both (both? why not every?) side to every issue. They take themselves very, very seriously. Unfortunately, they are wearing no pants.
Playboy has pictures? Huh. Nobody tells me anything.
Wait I thought porn made you go blind?
I thought you weren’t interested in tetrapods, PZ.
Chris Clarke:
Yeah! Last I checked, the pages of Playboy had nary a cephalopod to be found. Perhaps the Japanese edition would better serve in this regard.
I only know anything about Playboy because every fraternity house in America gets a free subscription, even the hippie freak fraternity of MIT.
Wait…you mean those aren’t alien, non-chordate creatures in the pages of Playboy? I swear, I thought they were hexapods, not tetrapods. What do they use those stumpy large ventral anterior tentacles for?
I’d go further than Playboy on the ‘fair and balanced’ issue. I believe that our mainstream publications and broadcast media should be liberal. A liberal press is one that stands up for those not in power. A liberal press is one that is skeptical about any administration, Dem or GOP.
A conservative press is one that supports existing power structures, including our current authoritarian regime.
There is no room for ‘balance’ in our MSM. We should stop acting like that’s desirable.
What do they use those stumpy large ventral anterior tentacles for?
They’re fake hands, just like centipedes have a fake head for a tail segment.
Well, at the risk of upping the pervert level, I feel obliged to point out that Hustler has always had quite a bit of corrosive anti-right wing writing in it.
I suspect it’s because these magazines more or less have to follow a Libertarian (or at least Libertinian) philosophy. They recognize that the greatest threats to them are the madmen of the right wing (well, that and all the free prOn available on teh internets).
My first roommate had a subscription to Playboy, so I read most of a year’s worth of issues.
The pictures, with certain exceptions, weren’t exactly what I would call titillating, but the actual artciles were both interesting to read and informative. It’s actually a magazine I wouldn’t mind writing for.
And regarding the bizarre Christ-lady – I thought that it was Peter who said that bit about putting one’s eye out if it offends oneself?
I agree with everyone here that the pictures lack, well, realism. I feel like I’m looking at a 3D rendering of a female. The only reason I still subscribe to Playboy is, honestly, for articles like this. Now if only I could figure out a way to bring the article in (without destroying my mag) to my boss who thinks global warming is a liberal conspiracy.
What the hell does ‘purty’ mean?
Well, y’see, when a PZ meets a magazine…
I confess: The mag once had great interviews.
I’m told there were pictures but I don’t recall that.
Not at all.
.
M:
You may be thinking of Matthew 9:43-48: If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life crippled than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna, where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched’.
Soooo, I guess if your naughty bits offend you, um, I guess I don’t want to go there.
Does it bother anyone besides me to see global warming compared to evolution? It jars me as much as the phrase “quantum mechanics and the presence of earth-like planets orbiting near stars.”
Global warming is a catch-phrase used to describe a collection of different claims about the earth’s climate. These claims are related, but vary in their evidentiary basis. Some of the claims depend on fairly recent findings and climate modeling. In contrast, evolution is a core theory that has been refined and tested in multiple ways over the last century and half.
If some of the particular claims about global warming are revised, that would surprise me no more than a retraction of some of the recent discoveries of earth-like planets orbiting near stars. Indeed, I expect the scientific view of global warming to be quite different in twenty years. That is nothing at all like evolution. Or quantum mechanics.
“Purty” is a spelling and pronunciation of pretty often associated with rural Americans, frequently used in an ironic sense to imply the person using it is a hick or yokel. “Garsh, Pa! Them there ladies sure is purty in theys knickers.”
I wouldn’t say it’s compared to as much as listed side by side as two things that science explains and that threaten the two big guns of the right, religion and corporate cash flow.
Elf Eye’s comment reminds me of Origen, who reportedly castrated himself in accordance with Matthew 19:12. Gibbon writes, “A few of these, among whom we may reckon the learned Origen, judged it the most prudent to disarm the tempter,” adding in a footnote, “As it was his general practice to allegorise Scripture, it seems unfortunate that, in this instance only, he should have adopted the literal sense.”
I haven’t read Playboy in years, but as I recall, they also publish some pretty good short fiction.
But yeah, with a few notable exceptions (*cough*Heather Carolin*cough*), the girls have been unappealingly plasticized for the last 10 years or so, if not a little longer.
Playboy has had some good pieces on evolution vs ID lately. Our favorite, Behe, has been getting smacked around quite nicely. I have to laugh when conservatives write in griping about the Playboy editorial board having an opinion that differs from their own. As if a publication with roots in free speech, race and gender issues, etc would be conservative… heh.
It’s not just science. There are actually news outlets that think they need to “balance” any story about the holocaust with holocaust deniers. Or at least, give the deniers equal standing with real historians in any article about court cases.
I worked for years at a journalism school. Lets just say it didn’t give me huge amounts of confidence in the media of tomorrow.
Wow. Bravo to Playboy for stating the obvious. (Then again, that tends to be their stock in trade.)
Being no prude I find it hard to believe that my favorite blogger actually finds the Playboy pix ‘purty’.
I haven’t seen it for years, but last I looked they were all silicone and makeup and very sterile. Are you just saying that to be ‘one of the guys’ or do you REALLY mean it?
David, do you believe ancient Greek statues and Renaissance paintings are accurate portrayals of actual human beings? ;-) Fake is usually “purty” even if it’s not usually arousing.
(I know, how dare I compare Playboy to art.)
Well, Playboy does have a penchant for showing the naked truth.
I was thinking about getting my nephew a subscription to a scientifically literate magazine for his birthday. I was thinking “National Geographic” or perhaps “New Scientist”. But “Playboy”? I think my sister might object.
Those mags have always had some good articles. Earler to offset the “porn” epiphet, now perhaps to keep customers in this age of web porn.
“Grasp the serious nature of your sin. Jesus said that it would be better for you to be blind”
That implies some seriously bad marksmanship. May I suggest that christians practice more and read less?
Well, we should be able to trust National Geographic or New Scientist, but lets be honest, the average person is more likely to read Playboy. I’m sure even most of the fundies do.
False Prophet,
No, I think they too are idealized versions of us )and I’m a sucker for all the girls swinging thru vines and flowers at the Frick – sick romantic fart that I am).
But I was concerned for PZ’s taste, not my own. I think Tim comes close to my concern in that he connects the ‘purty’ to a mind set that just never struck me as PZ. Probly my irony detector was attenuated this morning.
Yes this is a bad problem. Giving a side that has little or no basis in facts equal billing with a side that has all evidence and facts on its side.
SUUUURE a reader “sent” you the quote…
PZ only reads it for the scientific insight into mammalian mating behaviour…
I’ve always thought that I’ve railed against the so-called balance in the media, but I find myself asking Playboy for balance now. If they want me to read the magazine, I find that they must also include pictures of naked men.
People who claim to read Playboy for the articles have little excuse, since you can get a version of the magazine without the nekkid women…
What the hell does ‘purty’ mean?
Haven’t been in America long?
There was a time when I only read Scientific American for the pictures…
[i]What the hell does ‘purty’ mean?[/i]
To answer your question, ‘purty’ is a variant on ‘pretty’ or ‘good looking’. Example: “You sure do gots purty eyes”. It’s used exclusively in casual conversation. It originated in the South, but it’s sometimes used in an ironic fashion by Northerners.
Really? I didn’t know this. Funny enough it hasn’t made it across the ocean to Europe.
There was a time when Playboy aparently was the best market for science fiction stories, and if you was a die-ahrd fan, it would be one of the magazines to buy (this was before my time, so I can’t vouch for the correctness of this).
Global warming, one of those problems where the solution is worse than the problem. Try feeding 6 billion on organic tofu burgers that have never seen a delivery truck.
The Brazilian Playboy publishes some pictures of the US edition and a couple of stand-alone thematic issues every year. Judging by those images, I have to say that at the “beautiful game” of having the most wonderful women, we’re simply unbeatable. Which is comforting in the wake of the Germany 2006 fiasco…