Felix Dennis the Propaganda Menace

"Lies, disinformation and propaganda." -
A Response to Maxim Magazine
By Alex Constantine

An hit piece appeared in Maxim magazine in 1999, posted on the Net, that describes me as a charter member in the genre of "Conspiracy Theory Crackpots." Maxim magazine, mind you, is published by a recovered multi-millionaire and recovered crack cocaine addict, Felix Dennis ... who also puts out Fortean Times, a fringe magazine that publishes stories on UFOs and "aliens," paranoid conspiracy theories and religious "mysteries" - crackpot stuff.

So why did a Dennis-owned magazine attack me? Seems a bit hypocritical considering that Maxim's sister publication is a delusional waste of petroleum. The explanation comes down to Dennis' publishing fort�, as we'll see, as described by one of his employees, namely "lies, disinformation and propaganda."

Devon Jackson, the article's author, claims semi-falsely, "Alex Constantine, a newspaper writer, radio commentator, and conspiracy theorist known for his well-researched if fanciful theories, claims that O.J., Goldman, and Nicole were all dealing cocaine for the Mafia. More tantalizing, he says that Nicole and Mezzaluna waiter Goldman were pinching drug profits to open their own restaurant." This is "fanciful" in itself � I have never reported any such thing as fact, though I did mention a "rumor" to that effect.

All of the rest is true, though, and there is nothing "crackpot" about it: "Constantine weaves a compelling but complicated web, so hang on. Eleven months before Goldman was stabbed to death, his friend, Brett Cantor, was also killed in an eerily similar manner. And Goldman�s fellow Mezzaluna waiter Michael Nigg was shot in the head and killed, while yet another Mezzaluna waiter barely survived a car bombing. Constantine implies that many of those working at Mezzaluna were involved with the Mob and/or the drug trade. Need more evidence of the Mafia connection? According to Constantine, during Simpson�s trial, Nicole�s sister Denise Brown allegedly carried on a relationship with ex-Mob strongman and FBI informant Tony �The Animal� Fiato. And the capper: O.J.�s best friend, Al Cowlings, once served as a bodyguard for convicted Mafia drug smuggler Joey Ippolito, who, Constantine says, escaped from a Florida jail three weeks before the murders and made numerous calls to O.J."

All of this I did report and have retracted none of it. And where was the media during the Simpson trial? Lying and distorting and distracting, as usual. But in this day, when the press frequently manipulates public opinion with censorship and all varieties of propaganda, it is "crackpot" to report the truth about a high-profile murder case they worked so hard to cover up.

A look at the publication that attacked me is instructive: Maxim magazine is owned by Felix Dennis, a recovered crack cocaine addict, as I say, who has made good with adolescent-hormonal style magazines almost entirely lacking in intelligent content. When he took over Fortean Times, Dennis redirected the editorial policy of the magazine to push "lies, disinformation and propaganda," according to one of his employees:

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:n8DlNMPwBFgJ:www.combat-diaries.co.uk/diary19.htm+%22Felix+Dennis%22+and+the+cia&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

FLASH NEWS
FROM BRENTFORD
�
Here are some photographs obtained by the Combat Diaries Covert Team of the scene in the editorial office of our sister paper, The Fortean Times, when it was ordered by the new Him Upstairs (FELIX DENNIS) to carry features about UFOs and abductions....

Like all British Revolutions, the Fortean Times UFO revolution finished between a closed-down Dixon�s Supermart and a Local Tandoori and was not worth a spew in Woolworth�s doorway, if you ask me.� Above (left) Felix Dennis (seated left) comforts a distraught and crestfallen Brentford Polonius, assuring him that the new Fortean Times UFO honeymoon won�t last for long... Prod and Tonto, the Fortean Times UFO correspondents are in the front of the queue, taking a brief rest before they resume spreading their LIES, DISINFORMATION AND PROPAGANDA. ...
-----------------
FELIX DENNIS' OWN "CONSPIRACY THEORY"
WAS INSPIRED BY SMOKING CRACK

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/17/60II/main584067.shtml

Maxim's 'Dennis The Menace'
June 23, 2004

... His larger-than-life persona fueled his success, but it almost destroyed him. Beyond the excessive spending, women and wine, he became a drug addict, spending more than $2,000 a day on crack cocaine. It�s the only part of his life he regrets.

�It kills you, it absolutely kills you. You feel your health just deteriorate. It leads to paranoid fantasies. So, you find yourself wandering around your own house, you know, with a hammer saying, �When the CIA comes in that window, I'm really gonna give 'em one,�" says Dennis.

�You know, and then, you're looking-- you're looking and you're thinking, �Hammers? CIA? Windows? You know, something is wrong here, buddy, you know?� And you're in trouble.�
--------------
FRANK DENNIS
ON MONICA CROWLEY'S ULTRA-CON PROPAGANDA PROGRAM

http://www.monicacrowley.org/showinfo.html
September. 6, 2003
Guests:

Gerald Posner, live in studio, to discuss his headline-making book, Why America Slept
Frank Gaffney, Center for Security Policy
FELIX DENNIS, legendary publisher and owner of Maxim, Stuff, Blender and The Week magazines

========
FELIX DENNIS AND THE DUMBING DOWN
OF MAGAZINE CULTURE

Sex, sports, beer, gadgets, clothes:
The magic and menace of Maxim
Columbia Journalism Review, �
May/Jun 2000 by Loeb, Marshall

... Maxim is a menace. ...

Maxim has certainly established a distinct brand and a clear identity. Almost all the covers look alike (though Soutar promises changes soon.) A band dances across the top of each cover and proclaims the six topics on which Maxim focuses. SEX * SPORTS * BEER * GADGETS * CLOTHES * FITNESS

The right side of the cover is inevitably occupied by the photo of a sexpot, almost always a brunette dressed in black leather underwear or bikini (hard to tell one from the other). The cover's left side is occupied by a big headline proclaiming: SEX! SEX! SEX!

Or (in another issue): HER SECRET SEX FANTASY

For all this preoccupation with sex, Maxim runs absolutely no nudity - because, says Dennis, "if we did, we would cease to have any serious advertisers." So much for his charges that competitors - but not Maxim-would not dare run anything that upsets advertisers.

But the language used by the prototypical Maxim writer, that "smart, funny guy in a bar," makes Tony Soprano sound like a choirboy. And the members of his audience would seem to be not the high-class, pacesetting fellows that Maxim claims (median age: thirty, median household income: $62,000) but prepubescent kids smoking cigarettes (heavily advertised in Maxim) behind the barn door and laughing lustily at Maxim's endless single entendres.

Typical headline and subhead lingo: "Blown Jobs," "Ass-capades," "Brother Puckers" (about hockey-player action dolls).

Typical question in an interview with a hasbeen TV performer: "Do you think becoming a pimp is a good career move?"

Typical advice in a service piece on how to turn on your latest girlfriend: make a Swiss cheese fondue.

Advice and how-to stories go on and on and on page after page. (How to sink free throws, how to persuade your girl to talk dirty to you.) Many of the pieces consist only of the (often anonymous) writer's views, opinions, and counsel.

Some stories are just made-up putons (like the one revealing that shredded wheat is manufactured by impoverished peasants in Ukraine). Many stories about new products seem to be sly rewrites of press releases. It is often very hard to distinguish stories from ads.

Here are the middle-of the-book features in the most recent issue (April):

* A one-page interview with a mid-level male TV performer who made a softporn movie you never heard of

* An eight-page photo act on two "starlets" (Susan Ward and Lori Heuring) in their underwear

* An eight-page story on a modern Bonnie & Clyde ("America's Most Wanted Sweethearts")

* A six-page act, the product of a staff bull session, titled "30 Worst Albums of All Time"

* A five-page photo act on a littleknown TV personality (Jane Leeves of Frasier) in her underwear

* A six-page service piece on how you can choke, crush, punch, and kick into submission any thug who attacks you

* An eight-page service piece on how to have fun with women

* A six-page story on the most disgraceful events and individuals in the history of professional baseball (subhead: "The history of our national pastime is a rich tapestry of drunkenness, wife swapping, and synchronized vomiting")

* A seven-page photo act on a littleknown actress (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe) in her underwear

* A sixteen-page adoring photo act on men's clothes, watches, pens, and other things to buy.

The problem with this selection is not its sameness, not its sophomoric tone, not its talking down to readers (who presumably know already how to have fun with women) - no, the problem is that almost none of it involved serious reporting. Almost none of it required going out into the field, not even interviewing real-world experts on the phone. No, if you really wanted to know the answer to that urgent question, "who was the meanest SOB ever to play the game - Ty Cobb or Leo Durocher?" you had to depend on the personal views of one or more members of the Manhattan-bound Maxim staff.

That's a bean-counter's dream, a helluva lot cheaper than doing Reporting 101. No wonder Maxim can put out a monthly with 124 editorial pages with only twelve full-time editorial staffers and eleven full-time art, photo, fashion, and production staffers. No wonder Felix Dennis can - and often does - lecture U.S. journalists that their magazines are grossly overstaffed. After all, you can get by with so much less when you just stare at your navel and pontificate.

What makes this menacing is that Maxim has discovered a magic formula for profit without spending much time, energy, or money on what we call journalism. It won't take other publishers very long to discover, and replicate, that formula. Just talk dirty, and the readers (or page-flippers) will come.

Forget all those classic stories that expose scandal or tackle issues or vent important ideas in GQ, Esquire, or Men's Journal. Forget the memorable pieces by Norman Mailer, Tom Wolfe, and Nick Lemann. Can't you just hear those strained conversations now going on in countless magazine offices, as the proprietor admonishes his editor: "Jane, we really don't have to hire that thoughtful writer you want. We don't have to engage that hot free-lancer, either. In fact, we should cut the staff. Lighten up a bit, in every way. And who needs a National Magazine Award? Just look at Maxim . . .

"Maxim is a marvel."

Marshall Loeb is CJR's regular magazine columnist, and also a columnist for CBSMarketWatch. com. He was just cited as one of the 100 most important business journalists of the century by a TJFR Business News Report panel of judges.

Copyright Columbia University, Graduate School of Journalism May/Jun 2000
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved