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 | March 21, 2005, 2:13pm | #

"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 | March 21, 2005, 2:18pm | #

"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 | March 21, 2005, 2:21pm | #

She should sue.

OPUS | March 21, 2005, 2:21pm | #

Great title. Loved it.

GUYK | March 21, 2005, 2:28pm | #

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 | March 21, 2005, 2:28pm | #

She's no Stripperella.

SPD | March 21, 2005, 2:30pm | #

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

oUtsIdEl@@kN | March 21, 2005, 2:31pm | #

...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 | March 21, 2005, 2:32pm | #

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 | March 21, 2005, 2:34pm | #

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

dame | March 21, 2005, 2:38pm | #

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 | March 21, 2005, 2:41pm | #

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 | March 21, 2005, 2:45pm | #

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 | March 21, 2005, 2:45pm | #

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 | March 21, 2005, 2:50pm | #

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 | March 21, 2005, 2:51pm | #

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

SPD | March 21, 2005, 2:51pm | #

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 | March 21, 2005, 3:22pm | #

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 | March 21, 2005, 3:35pm | #

"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 | March 21, 2005, 3:38pm | #

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 | March 21, 2005, 3:43pm | #

"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 | March 21, 2005, 3:51pm | #

"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 | March 21, 2005, 3:53pm | #

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 | March 21, 2005, 3:55pm | #

zeroentitlement,
I noticed that too.

Take The Quiz Zipp | March 21, 2005, 4:00pm | #

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 | March 21, 2005, 4:20pm | #

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 | March 21, 2005, 5:03pm | #

Don,

What kind of cars were they?

phocion | March 21, 2005, 5:25pm | #

I wonder if Drudge will cancel his subscription in protest.

Stevo Darkly | March 21, 2005, 5:25pm | #

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 | March 21, 2005, 5:27pm | #

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 | March 21, 2005, 5:30pm | #

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 | March 21, 2005, 5:35pm | #

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

Solitudinarian | March 21, 2005, 5:49pm | #

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 | March 21, 2005, 5:58pm | #

"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 | March 21, 2005, 6:29pm | #

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 | March 21, 2005, 6:40pm | #

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 | March 21, 2005, 7:08pm | #

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 | March 21, 2005, 7:50pm | #

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 | March 21, 2005, 9:15pm | #

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 | March 22, 2005, 10:26am | #

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 | March 22, 2005, 8:25pm | #

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 | March 22, 2005, 10:38pm | #

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.