Ebony And Daily Caller Locked In Existential Debate About Nature Of Jokes, Reality

 
 Yesterday we closed our story about wingnut outrage over EbonyMagazine's "We Are Trayvon" covers by noting that Ebony was taking the fuss in stride, as reflected in this tweet:  

“We have so many Tea Party readers and followers. To lose all zero of them due to our September cover would be devastating.”

We also noted that the interwebs were having more than a bit of fun with the idea, as #whitepeople boycottingEBONY was also burning up the Twitterverse.

Ah, but is there in fact an actual boycott of Ebony? In actual reality, there is not, for indeed, such a notion is utterly absurd! It is, in fact, the sort of absurdity that one might mock with a sarcastic hashtag, even!

But wait! What if those dumb liberals  actually believe  that white conservatives are boycotting Ebony? The Daily Caller's leering homunculus Patrick Howley took that angle and ran with it, breathlessly revealing that Ebony had been "duped" -- and by a "disgraced reporter," no less! Hahaha, foolish liberals! You made a joke about a conservative boycott that does not exist, which means you are laughing at nothing!

Honestly, just trying to explain the misfires in logic here makes our brain hurt. Mediaite's Tommy Christopher probably has the most cogent summary; it basically breaks down like this:

1.  Ebony's cover ticks off conservatives.

2.  Ebony jokes, "Yeah, we're really worried about losing our tea party readers, you bet." It does not actually mention a boycott.

3. Twitter blows up with jokes about the very idea of white people boycotting Ebony. 

4.  Gawker runs a piece about Ebony's tweet, noting that there's no organized boycott, but that at least one commenter in a Breitbart thread had suggested it. The Gawker story also notes that "A few hours later, this was passed off with complete credulity by U.S. News & World Report." 

5. Patrick Howley excitedly reveals that Ebony had been "duped" into believing that a boycott was being organized, and also pointed out that the U.S. News piece was written by Elizabeth Flock, who had resigned from the Washington Post in 2012 after an "ethical lapse," possibly involving plagiarism. Howley says the U.S. News piece "kicked off a liberal meme that conservatives were staging some kind of racist boycott of the magazine."

The only real problem with Howley's thesis is that by the time the U.S. News piece ran, the joke was hours old, which might explain why Flock led her piece with the Ebony tweet. Damn her and her time-travelling! Whatever dimension Howley is from, causality works differently there.

In any case, let's be absolutely clear here: There is no boycott of Ebony , and it is disgraceful to joke about things that do not exist. We are looking forward to Patrick Howley's upcoming book-length exposé, There is No Chicken, There is No Road, and There is No Lightbulb: More Lies From the Liberal Media. 

[ Mediaite / Gawker / Daily Caller / Illustration by Alevgor ]