Bar And Pub Buffalo

The Beast was a Buffalo, New York left-libertarian biweekly newspaper founded by Matt Taibbi and Kevin McElwee in 2002. Buffalo attorney Paul Fallon was instrumental in bringing the necessary resources together, and has been the Publisher of the newspaper since the beginning. The Beast is now only available online and may or may not return as a printed magazine. The current Editor-in-Chief is Allan Uthman, with Ian Murphy handling layout and graphic design. Local musicians and promoters Lee Langenfeld and Craig Robbins invested in the newspaper early on, assisting the Beast team in distribution, ad sales, bar reviews and interviews since issue number three.

The Beast was a sister publication of sorts to the Moscow-based satire rag the eXile, which Taibbi founded earlier, with Mark Ames. Similarities between the two papers included the "Sic" section (in which readers' letters are purposely ridiculed, sometimes very crudely), "Bar-dak" (bar and pub reviews from the editors, sometimes too honest for the liking of the proprietors), "Beast-O-Scopes", political analysis, pranks and featured articles like The 50 Most Loathsome People of 2004.

The inaugural issue of the paper was mailed to all members of the Erie County Green Party, as Paul Fallon was the Party Chairman at the time. Langenfeld and Robbins received copies, and subsequently went down to the Beast headquarters to invest in the paper. Taibbi's guerilla writing style, together with McElwee's mastery of six languages lampooned Buffalo, with scathing criticisms of local media, political commentary and general ridicule of other mainstream institutions. Paul Fallon provided guidance, financial support and direction while performing dual duties as Publisher and in-house attorney. Two of the most notable humor pieces from this period were pranks on Buffalo Mayor Anthony Masiello, and detailed transcripts of a visit from the irate Artvoice publisher Jamie Moses to the Beast offices. For over a year, Taibbi, McElwee and Fallon continued to attack the Buffalo establishment.

Following Taibbi's departure in 2004 to write for the New York Press, Fallon, Langenfeld and Robbins remained and continued to produce the newspaper. Fallon invested more money in order to maintain operations, and hired editor and art director Paul Salamone, senior editor Brian Sek, managing editor Gabe Armstrong, and other "artist-types" who contributed significantly to the paper.

After Salamone left the paper to move to Colorado, he passed the editorial position to Chris Riordan of the Jackass-affiliated skateboarding magazine Big Brother. Riordan steered the paper away from politics and towards absurdist humor, writing feature stories on demon-summoning and fantasy stories about artificial nipple factories. After five issues, Riordan quit as editor to focus on his poker-playing.

On the advice of then-art director Josh Brown, editorial duties were turned over to Al Uthman. Uthman fired Brown shortly afterward for general incompetence. Uthman continued on as editor and has served in that role longer than any of his predecessors.

Uthman who is of Middle Eastern descent, is a vocal critic of America's foreign affairs policies in the Middle East. Following the reprinting of the controversial Danish Mohammed cartoon in a "Special Blasphemy Issue" of the Beast, he received a death threat in the form of an anonymous phone call to his elderly mother . In that particular issue, many other major religions were mocked which resulted in one business pulling an advertising at the urging of a Christian customer. The anti-semitic "Shylock Fox" cartoon (which featured the sleuth solving a financial mystery and fingering the guilty culprit by deducing, "Answer: Because he's a Jew!") appearing in the issue apparently caused little reaction.

The Beast rose to national prominence in 2005 after actor Tom Cruise threatened to sue the paper in response to the 2004 Most Loathsome People list and the story was picked up by national entertainment news programs. Seeing an opportunity for free advertising and believing that Cruise had no case, The Beast actively encouraged the lawsuit. Cruise did not follow up on his threat, and a lawsuit was never filed. The controversy died down after several months.

In 2007, The Beast began national distribution. While offices are still centralized in Buffalo, it is available at select retail outlets throughout the country and through subscription.

Contributors

Contributors to The Beast have included

• Matt Taibbi
• Kevin McElwee
• Paul Fallon
• Allan Uthman
• Ian Murphy
• Chris Riordan
• Paul Salamone
• Freddy Balloons
• Gabe Armstrong
• Chris Riordan
• Alexander Zaitchik
• Russ Wellen
• A. Monkey
• Stan Goff
• William Rivers Pitt
• Andrew Gullerstien
• Ronnie Roscoe
• Al Cerda
• Rev. Watts Compton
• Kit Smith
• Michael Gildea
• Matt Bors
• Christopher Famighetti
• Lee Langenfeld
• Craig Robbins
• Nick Sorrenti
• Tyler Bass
• Josh Righter

See also

• Matt Taibbi
• Buffalo, New York
• The eXile

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