Andy Borowitz: New Yorker Blog Will Be As ‘Inaccurate’ As Ever

The New Yorker has just acquired the Borowitz Report, but the man behind the political-humor blog is telling fans not to worry about him having to clean up his act.

Longtime Borowitz Report readers might ask: how will moving to The New Yorker, known for its excruciating fact-checking, change the Borowitz Report, which is composed entirely of lies? Andy Borowitz wrote on his blog. The answer: not at all. The Borowitz Report will be as inaccurate as always, and if I ever write something that turns out to be true you have my deepest apology and my promise that it won't happen again.

Borowitz, who got his start in the 1980s writing for sitcoms such as Square Pegs and The Facts of Life, has been a contributor to The New Yorker since 1998. In 2001, he created the Borowitz Report and won the first-ever National Press Club award for humor.

Earlier this year, the characteristically private humorist published his first autobiographical essay, An Unexpected Twist, about an emergency abdominal surgery that almost killed him. The essay became a number-one best seller, and Amazon named it Best Kindle Single of 2012.

News of the New Yorker's new blog purchase comes as its parent company, Condé Nast Publications, puts the finishing touches on the final phase of its print and digital integration. Last week it was reported that the company's sales department would undergo a major restructuring in the wake of continued soft growth for its print products. Total ad pages for Condé Nast titles, which include GQ, Vanity Fair, Wired and more than a dozen other magazines, have declined 8.8 percent for the first half of this year. Its digital division, meanwhile, continues to grow.

As for Borowitz, he has assured readers that his new bosses at the New Yorker will make no attempt to muzzle him -- with perhaps one exception. David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, has assured me that I can write whatever I want as long as I don't make fun of Malcolm Gladwell, he wrote.

Apparently, Jonah Lehrer jokes are still fair game.