The New Radar Online Is Titanically Awful

Over the weekend, one of the things that Ana Marie Cox and I spent time vlogging about was the demise of Radar Magazine, and their excellent "Fresh Intelligence" blog, which mined the meat of unique, writerly voices without becoming irksome, quirksome, or shallow. We both thought it was a big loss for the interwebs, but, hey, we were a bit biased.

Happily, the new anonymous crew at Radar has started up their own Fresh Intelligence operation, which has proved definitively that Ana Marie and I were right to lament the original's demise, because in two day's time, the site's new proprietors have put forth a product that truly fails to improve upon a blank laptop screen, thickly coated in whale turds.

Consider the insipid writing of their two-days-late Amy Poehler item:

Where in tarnation was Amy Poehler on SNL this weekend update?!

Why, she was off popping a babe!

Baby Mama Amy is a real baby mama!

Riffing on the child's name, Archie, the dimwit who wrote this piece concludes, "Can Jughead be far behind?" Oh, yes, HAHAHAHA, gotta love that effortless display of cultural currency.

But look, the new goal at RadarOnline is to become some sort of competitor of TMZ, stocked with empty-calorie celebrity fluff. There's a market for that, I guess, but you have to wonder how far they're going to get when they flub basic geography and they cannot even get their subjects' names spelled correctly:

For the record, guys? Hawaii is IN the United States, and it's spelled H-U-D-G-E-N-S.

But, look. If I had to sum up the first two days of New Radar, I need only present the following image:

That's just an atrocity. Indeed, Jughead, was not far behind.

RELATED:
Didn't He Ramble? [Alex Balk]

PREVIOUSLY, on the HUFFINGTON POST:
Hard to Kill, But Not Impossible: Finally, the End of Radar

Comments

[newpotusplease]

11:40 PM on 10/29/2008

the other thing that is titanically awful= The Daily Beast

sorry, but it is true

[MadOzbo]

06:41 PM on 10/29/2008

Bad does not EVEN begin to describe the monstrousity that inhabits the old Radar.com site now...
I had moved it down my list of Favorites last week, and hadn't checked it until today...My sweet Lord, what a bunch of BORING crap.

TMZ need not worry. They are under no competition from this treacly piece of crud on the web.
I removed the link from my favorites just prior to writing this...YUK!

[jdmba]

05:53 PM on 10/29/2008

I used to be a HUGE Radar fan but their last 3 magainzes (print and online) have made me nauseated. I have cancelled my subscription and removed them from my Favorites. The magazine has completely lost its wit and cultural identity. One cover featured a (rare) bad picture of Michelle Obama, headlined,"What's so scary about Michelle?". The article was such a superficial discussion about the Angry Black Woman stereotype that it actually reinforced it. In reference to Margaret Cho's TV show, the authors said something like, "Ugh, another diatribe about race relations?" Yes, Radar. Actually, we LIKE different points of view on real things, rather than reading about High School Musical. WRONG DEMOGRAPHIC, jerks.

[KarenGeorgetown]

04:17 PM on 10/29/2008

I actually did a real spit take for the first time in my life, at work, thankfully in my own little office at, "...fails to improve upon a blank laptop screen, thickly coated in whale turds." I'm wiping the screen as I type. YOU and Ana Marie (love her on Rachel!) need to start up your own fabu blog/vlog! How can we help make this happen? "Vlogorrhea.com" works for me!

[11907281]

03:50 PM on 10/29/2008

The examples you show make carrot top look like St. Carlin.

[freddy3000]

11:28 AM on 10/29/2008

Item! Oh my dear God, they've actually hired The Onion's Jackie Harvey.