Save The Newspapers! Slate V Urges You To “Buy One Anyway”

In a nod to Sally Struthers, the folks at Slate V have crafted a tongue-in-cheek commercial imploring viewers to sponsor poor newspaper journalists at “Buy One Anyway”: “A foundation that encourages people like you to purchase newspapers daily even though no one wants to read them anymore.” Aw. The familiar tropes are all there – for the price of a cup of coffee, etc. – but they really nail all the details. (“I won’t even skim the headlines, but it’s good to know that a copy editor in Nebraska will have something warm to eat tonight.”) See below:

Now the fun part: Who’s who in the cast? They got a pro for the lead — comic/actress Alissa Ford — but otherwise, the cast is made up of some familair Slate-family bylines, including:

• Slate national correspondent, William Saletan as the woebegone Metro reporter typing disconsolately away
• Slate V executive producer of Bill Smee, as the sports reporter with the sad eyes
• Slate homepage editor Chad Lorenz as the above-mentioned copy editor from Nebraska eating Ramen noodles
• The Root‘s associate editor Natalie Hopkinson as the photo editor
• Slate assistant editor Chris Wilson, seen walking down a hall with Smee (sans ballcap)
• Not seen: LA-based writer-directer Scott Blaszak; other excecutive producer Andy Bowers.

NB: If you look closely at the writeboard behind Saletan as he types, you can see words like “Al Quaida” (sic), “Bin Laden” and, oddly, “Jossip” (though it could be “Tossup”). Either way, those ramen noodles look delicious.

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