Time magazine reported thatPlaygirl asked DC police officerMichael Fanone to pose nude.- But the erotic feminist magazine told Insider it never asked Fanone to pose.
- The Time reporter declined to comment and Fanone was unreachable.
DC Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone has been inundated with letters, calls, messages, and requests since he responded to the attack at the Capitol on January 6 - some of them thankful, others threatening.
A new Time magazine report said one of those requests was to pose nude in Playgirl magazine and that he said no.
But Playgirl publisher Jack Lindley Kuhns told Insider on Thursday: "I can confirm that Playgirl Magazine never sent any request for Michael Fanone to pose in the publication."
Fanone was mercilessly attacked by pro-Trump rioters trying to stop Congress from certifying the presidential election. He was thrown to the ground, beaten with a pole, Tasered, and had a heart attack at the scene.
He told CNN and Time he has post-traumatic stress disorder from that day. Fanone testified before the House committee that's investigating the insurrection, lambasting Republican lawmakers who have downplayed or dismissed the attack.
While Playboy magazine skyrocketed in popularity for its lustful images of naked women, Playgirl emerged in 1973 as a sort of counter. The magazine invited feminist writers like Maya Angelou and Gloria Steinem to contribute while instead featuring images of naked and semi-nude men. Playgirl folded in 2015, but Kuhns and editor-in-chief Skye Parrott recently resurrected it.
Rather than focusing on the male body, the new Playgirl showcases bodies of all types, ethnicities, and gender, plus personal essays and art. Kuhns told Out Magazine that his goal for the new iteration is "a mixture between a political magazine and an art magazine."
Time magazine political correspondent Molly Ball, who published the cover story on Fanone, declined Insider's request for comment on Thursday, and Fanone was unreachable.