Zipp Stripped at Playgirl; Female Nudie Mag No Place for a Bush Lover

Drudge reports that Playgirl Editor Michele Zipp has gotten bounced for outing herself as a Bush voter. He repros her email:

"Hello Drudge,

"After your coverage of my article about coming out and voting Republican, I did receive many letters of support from fellow Republican voters, but it was not without repercussions. Criticism from the liberal left ensued. A few days after the onslaught of liberal backlash, I was released from my duties at Playgirl magazine.

"After underlings expressed their disinterest of working for an outed Republican editor, I have a strong suspicion that my position was no longer valued by Playgirl executives. I also received a phone call from a leading official from Playgirl magazine, in which he stated with a laugh, "I wouldn't have hired you if I knew you were a Republican.

"I just wanted to let you know of the fear the liberal left has about a woman with power possessing Republican views."

Little bit more here.

Background here.

Comments

[joe]

"I just wanted to let you know of the fear the liberal left has about a woman with power possessing Republican views."

When I think "power," I think "Playgirl Magazine."

Um, not like that. You know what I mean. Right guys?

Guys?

[metalgrid]

"I just wanted to let you know of the fear the liberal left has about a woman with power possessing Republican views."

To echo joe's sentiment, being an editor for Playgirl is a sign of power? Methinks Michele needs to lay off the Mai Tais.

[Don]

She should sue.

[OPUS]

Great title. Loved it.

[GUYK]

Now this is a damn shame! The very idea! Firing one for voting republican! My question is how and why did a republican go to work for such a liberal rag? Sounds like a watergate deal to me. Must have been a spy--

[metalgrid]

She's no Stripperella.

[SPD]

Maybe the Log Cabin Republicans can stage a protest outside whatever strip mall Playgirl's main office is located in.

[oUtsIdEl@@kN]

...of the fear the liberal left has about a woman with power possessing Republican views.

have fears about a woman with power; .

they already got enough built in.

guess the editors were protecting their interest, no repuritians read playgirl; right?

they do have a tendency to let their beleifs creep into all sorts of areas, of course with unintended circumstances.

[Mo]

Maybe she got fired for delusions of grandeur. Either that or her readers, gay men, weren?t happy about her gloating about her support for a president that is opposed to their lifestyle issues. Of course, she thinks her readers are primarily women, IIRC from the last post on Zipp, so I?m leaning towards her being fired for being delusional.

[SPD]

Ironic... didn't I just read that Bush helped sell magazines?!?

[dame]

It's going to take a bit more to persuade me she was fired for her political views. Of course Drudge is going to play up that possibility, but there's just a good a chance she got fired for the myriad of reasons people in her biz get fired.

[The Real Bill]

What a bad political move for lefties. If it is okay to fire someone for their political views, shouldn't it be okay to fire someone for their race, gender, religion, etc.? What a bunch of hypocrites!

[SPD]

dame,

True enough. It's not like she got fired from The Nation or salon.com. Playgirl is probably on the same prestigious tier of magazines as National Lampoon and Cracked.

My guess is that Zipp could probably see the writing on the wall and complained to the first person who would be politically sympathetic and willing to publish her lame excuses on what went down and why, no questions asked. That would be Drudge, of course, where no crackpot right-winger need fear the withering glare of journalistic scrutiny.

[JCM]

Besides, what does it matter? Don't we all agree that an employer should be able to hire and fire for whatever reason they choose? Me, I'd never hire anyone who eats eggplant. It shows poor judgement and weak critical-thinking skills.

[SM]

I really, really hope Congress steps forward to investigate this outrage with 24/7 coverage on C-SPAN. We need to get to the bottom of this as a community etc.

[trostky]

Frankly, an editor who so flagrantly misuses "disinterest" deserves walking papers, whatever her politics.

[SPD]

I'll bet The Real Bill was right there on the front lines, too, when a woman who supported John Kerry was fired from her job last year.

He wasn't? Well, maybe he was somewhere in the back.

[Ball of Confusion]

How could someone who claims to be republican whine about an employer getting to hire/fire over "values" issues? How much sympathy is she hoping to garner from the group who'd just as gladly have put the whole operation out of business?

[andy]

"How could someone who claims to be republican whine about an employer getting to hire/fire over "values" issues? How much sympathy is she hoping to garner from the group who'd just as gladly have put the whole operation out of business?"

Believe it or not, the Fundies of whom you speak are a relatively small portion of the GOP. Most Republicans have no desire to "put the whole... bla blabla" She obviously differs on the party on a few issues, but that doesn't mean that she shouldn't be able to say she's a "Bush lover". And while Playgirl should be able to fire/hire who they want, that doesn't mean they should do so on a basis such as this.

[Mike]

Ironic... didn't I just read that Bush helped sell magazines?!?

You're confused. Bush helped sell Playboy magazines. Until they started airbrushing it all away.

[zeroentitlement]

"After underlings expressed their disinterest of working for an outed Republican editor..."

Er, "disinterest of?" Not "in?" I'm beginning to suspect there's more to this um, editor's, firing than just politics.

[jason]

"Zipp Stripped at Playgirl; Female Nudie Mag No Place for a Bush Lover"

do you know if the post is hiring, gillespie?

[One Who Knows]

From what I'm told, she wasn't fired for being a Republican. She was fired for damn near running the magazine into the ground (ad rates plummeting, # of ad pages also in the basement, repeated battles with upper management over the direction of the magazine, etc., etc., etc.). But like a failed Republican pundit, she went out the door whining about the damn liberal media that paid her salary for years.

[Mo]

zeroentitlement,
I noticed that too.

[Take The Quiz Zipp]

I think Zipp needs to take the world's smallest political quiz:

http://lp.org/quiz/

to see how much she actually has in common with these Republicans with whom she so eagerly identifies.

[Don Mynack]

The one and only time I saw a Playgirl magazine, it featured naked dudes cooking breakfast and working on cars. It's a pity how the audience for such a publication could suffer this way.

[SPD]

Don,

What kind of cars were they?

[phocion]

I wonder if Drudge will cancel his subscription in protest.

[Stevo Darkly]

Me, I'd never hire anyone who eats eggplant. It shows poor judgement and weak critical-thinking skills.

Bastard! Eggplant is fine once in a while, as long as it doesn't have that strong, bitter taste to it. Soaking it in saltwater helps. And I think Japanese eggplant is rather mild.

What say the rest of you guys? Are you tolerant and sophisticated pro-egglanters -- or shambling anti-eggplant Neanderthals?

(Just trying to start a flamewar with a topic I've never seen before.)

[Stevo Darkly]

I forgot to add an ad hominem:

JCM: Me, I'd never hire anyone who eats eggplant. It shows poor judgement and weak critical-thinking skills.

You, sir, are obviously a bigot. 🙂

[Ball of Confusion]

andy,
I'm not sure I believe that, but I at least acknowledge the possibility. Yet even if it's true, that minority seems to have a pretty good grip on the party's direction and policy.

Just for kicks I decided to see if I could find anything about this in the official Republican party platform, so I Googled it. Lo and behold:

http://www.gop.com/media/2004platform.pdf
(page 83)

The Republican Party Shares the position of the United States Supreme Court in Miller v California...that obscene material is "unprotected by the first amendment"...We therefore support vigorous prosection of obscene material by the U.S. Department of Justice."

Now I realize that that doesn't equate DIRECTLY to "we would shut down Playgirl if we could", but I'd call it more than a gentle leaning in that direction.

[Ball of Confusion]

The very next section of that document being, of course, the part that calls for a constitutional amendment to "protect" marriage...

[Solitudinarian]

Are you tolerant and sophisticated pro-eggplanters -- or shambling anti-eggplant Neanderthals?

Forgive me, Stevo, but I refuse to discuss the subject with someone who does not call the plant aubergine.

[Fabius]

"Eggplant lover" and "philo-auberginite" are just genteel euphemisms for the eggplantite "soft" racsim of anti-neanderthalism, anti-jersey-cornism and anti-jerseyism in general.

Damn your eyes, gentlemen, all of you!

Neue Jersey uber alles!

QFMC cos. V

[Jake]

I call BULLS**T on this one!

This chick knew she was going to get canned, ran to drudge to go on about her loving bush ;), and now is playing the victim part by saying it was all the fault of being a persecuted republican. What a load!

She should enjoy her speaking fees from Prestige Speakers by railing about those crazy liberals. I'm sure the ink is drying on her contract now...

[Ball of Confusion]

I can believe that it's bullshit, but again I have to ask - is the target audience for consuming "railing about crazy liberals" going to want to hear it from ex-editor of a pornography magazine? I just can't see that. If that's the last-minute leverage she was trying to obtain, it doesn't sound like a very good strategy. Now claiming that she used to be a Republican until they screwed her over and turning coat to rail to the liberals about them being right all along - that I can see.

[The Real Bill]

Hey SPD,

Really? What's your fucking point? Fire or hire anyone you please for any reason. I'm not defending her. I think the right of free association should be absolute.

[SPD]

Real Bill,

My point is that she's using her political background as insurance. You jumped right to the conclusion that things actually happened the way she said they did.

Do you really think she was fired because she was a Republican? Could it be that she wasn't a good editor?

[Franklin Harris]

Do you really think she was fired because she was a Republican? Could it be that she wasn't a good editor?

Who knows? Does anyone here actually read Playgirl? I mean, I could ask one of my gay friends, but he isn't reading the articles, if you know what I mean, and I think you do.

[SPD]

The idea of pictures of naked dudes doing housework does crack me up, though. I suppose that would count as a woman's ultimate fantasy!

[Don]

I suppose that would count as a woman's ultimate fantasy!

I think the ultimate fantasy is more like a hyper romatic rich dude who wields lots of power.

[ED]

She was not fired for outing herself as a Republican, although she really said some stupid shit. She was fired because she decided to overhaul Playgirl and to hell with all the readers. She tried to make it a Sex and the City magazine that had lots and lots of recipes and a travel section and very little frontal nudity, saying women don't want that anymore. Women are not the only audience. The January issue of Playgirl was a disaster and full of copy and the outcry was big. Slowly, the magazine did the full frontals again and I'll bet her brilliant overhaul almost killed the magazine.