Former Crank publisher Jeff Koyen, recently mentioned in this forum for his hearty scrape with Howard Stern, has resigned as editor of New York Press. The weekly paper has been under fire for the past week due to Matt Taibbi’s “THE 52 FUNNIEST THINGS ABOUT THE UPCOMING DEATH OF THE POPE”, (“Pope survives just long enough to be acquired by Isiah Thomas for Stephon Marbury, 2005 #1 pick and cash considerations. “We feel like we’ve made ourselves younger and more competitive,” Thomas says.”). and faced with suspension today, Koyen told his superiors they could take this job and shove it (though with far more colorful language than Johnny Paycheck managed). Jeff’s version of events can be found over at Gawker.
NY Press publisher Chris Rohlad took exception (naturally) to being called “a spineless, alt-weekly weenie.”
“I think the letter was childish and inaccurate — he called me a spineless alt-weekly weenie,” Rohland said. “He has never said these things to me before. I wish Jeff luck, and I wish the person who hires him even more luck.”
According to Rohland, the original cover concept for that issue was a parody of the New York Post. Koyen agreed not to run it there but slipped it alongside his editor’s note on page 4, Rohland asserted.
According to Rohland, he earlier green-lighted Taibbi’s story, “The 52 Funniest Things About the Upcoming Death of the Pope.”
“My editors have always been given freedom of speech and I rarely step in,” Rohland said. But Rohland said he opposed the New York Post parody cover, not for legal reasons, but because he didn’t feel it was necessary. “It’s competitive enough out there,” he said, adding he didn’t want to give another New York tab free publicity.
Yeah, that makes perfect sense. There’s no telling how much the New York Post benefitted from being the subject of such a parody.
Senator Chuck Schumer is quoted as saying Taibbi’s article is “the most disgusting thing I’ve seen in 30 years of public life.” To which I can only add, the Senator oughta get out of the house more often.
Awright! GREAT news!
well, good riddance. Jeff Koyen was an infantile smug piece of embarrassment from day one (his editorials are some of the worst writing I have ever read, anywhere, and I even read the Russ Smith column), and Matt Taibbi is a pompous and boring-ass-hell poor excuse for a ‘political’ columnist. Funny that it took such a tedious and very-much-not-funny-enough article on ahem, GOD ON EARTH, “The Pope”, to send Jeff Koyen the fuck outta town. That’s the 53rd and only funny point about the Pope dying btw. The only good thing about religion that I know of is that it’s here for us to make fun of and ridicule, hopefully to eventually abolish altogether. Too bad this noble pastime has been given such a bad rap by such talentless and unfunny hacks as Koyen and Taibbi. Here’s a hint, when you write ‘satire’, make it ‘funny’. Instead we got 52 points, and not one of them funny at all, and this when writing about the Pope, y’know, the fucking Pope – can you think of anything easier to make fun of? Yet Taibbi comes up less than empty.
Great to see Koyen go, especially for something this lame, and I hope Taibbi will have to move on (.org) as well. Or better yet, cancel the stupid rag altogether, that way we will get rid of that stellar brain that is Armond White too.
One of the things about parody and satire is, it should be funny. Jeff Koyen’s taste is horrid, and Matt Taibbi is about as funny as a friend of a friend at a bar who says something mean wrapped in the conceit of a joke and you stand there and humor him, but you know it’s pathetic and hope he goes home safely and gets some rest already.
I’m all for an openness of ideas and a freedom of expresison, but Jeff Koyen–while honest–is simply a prick contrarian who is guaranteed to hate what you like. His idea of humor is simply assinine extremes punctuated by cheap shots.
“Crank” seemed interesting during the ‘zine craze because it was extreme, yet accessible. Jeff was an asshole, but that’s okay. When he got the “N.Y. Press” gig the words “in over his head” came to mind. His main skill in journalism was commentary and bile. He makes you appreciate what Mike Royko and Jimmy Breslin did. Even Al Goldstein (SCREW Mag) had more sense and taste.
Glad he’s gone. And hope he does not resurface any time soon.
And ironically it looks like in the end “L Magazine” won their stupid pissing contest against the “N.Y. Press” with Koyen gone. And that doesn’t say much for free weeklies in NY.
Yes, Jeff Koyen is a self-serving, smug jerk. It was about time the NY Press cutoff its ‘dead weight’. Afterall, what EXACTLY were his literary credentials, an irrelevant, fringe fanzine from the 90’s? One reaps what one sows. Another fine example of culling of the herd…
what are anyone’s literary credentials? I published an irrelevant, fringe fanzine in the ’90’s (’80s, too) and here you are blasting Jeff K.
What happened to freedom of speech? Why should some people be protected from criticism and not others? Don’t people have the choice ‘not read’ what they know they’re going to find offensive, in the same way we all have the choice to switch off the TV? And anyone who sets themselves up as a ‘world’ leader and authority on how others should live their lives is putting themselves in the arena for criticism, whatever form that might take.
Jeff Koyen showed Stern to be the liar he is. First he says “you guys supported me for six years” then goes on to say he’s never heard of NYPress. Total moron and liar. Koyen was the only thing GOOD about NYPress.