May 20, 2005
Metrocard Multi-Swiper Ban
The MTA has officially voted to crack down on Metrocard scammers. These scammers are the guys who sell expired or doctored Metrocards, as well as swipes from an unlimited Metrocard. The MTA had estimated it lost $10 million in revenue from these thieves, revenue it desperately needs, and now the crime has much more severe punishments: 3 months in jail, plus a $500 fine (or a fine twice the amount in lost MTA revenue); previously, the penalty was just 10 days in jail and/or a $25 fine. This comes as the MTA finds that Metrocards are more popular than ever, with revenue coming in $2 million under what they expected - even after the fare increase for unlimited cards.
An unexpected victim of this news is CBS reporter Arthur Chi'en: While reporting about the story on location, some fools from Opie & Anthony were harassing him. Here's Newsday's delicate description:
The larger of the two men made an obscene gesture. Chi'en stayed composed for several seconds as they appeared to taunt him, but then the reporter asked them what they were doing, using an obscenity.Though it seemed like he thought cameras were off, was still fired, in this so-scared-of-FCC time. Chi'en only statement was, "I really do regret the whole thing and I apologize if I offended anybody." Now, Gothamist understands that CBS 2 had to reprimand Chi'en, but as he was standing up for himself, Gothamist thinks they acted too hastily. Viva the right to yell back at assholes! Gawker has more links to the f-bomb firing.
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speaking of much-needed MTA cash:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/19/opinion/19herbert.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fOp%2dEd%2fColumnists
selling swipes on a monthly metro card isn't scamming, it's free enterprise.
if he thought he wasn't on camera, he shouldn't have been fired.
Actually, if you watch the video they weren't harrassing him. One was just standing there with a sign in back of him. The second man, ironically wasn't part of it, he was actually Crazy Cabbie from Howard STern/K-Rock just passing through.
Reporter lost his cool, and the station over reacted.
O&A Party Rock
i thought cabbie was supposed to be going to jail?
cabbie is going to jail in a few months.
babbaboey to you all
not harassing?
what do you call this quote from the DN.
Meanwhile, fans of the Opie & Anthony show, who have mounted a campaign to annoy television reporters, were boasting about the infantile stunt on the deejays' Web site.
My boyfriend and I have a question about regular pay-as-you-go cards, maybe someone on here can answer it.
My question is, if three of my friends come to visit New York, and they collectively purchase a pay-as-you-go card, is this breaking the MTA rule of non-transferable cards? I maintain that it isn't, because it's pay-as-you-go. I would understand that if you did this with an unlimited use card, THAT's against the rule, but my boyfriend says that no matter what, you can't let anyone else use your pay-as-you-go card. Anyone know?
Hey, if incidents like this get local news producers to use fewer pointless live reports, I say harass 'em all.
O&A rule. Assault on the media = always funny.
If you have a pay-as-you-go card, that is, you bought a card with a limited amount of rides on them. It is not illegal to share them among yourselves, since it is the same thing as if all three of you went up and bought three individual rides. If you were selling rides at a marked up fee to strangers, that would be bad. But why would anyone buy a more expensive ride?
I think the swipers are selling rides for $1. So the riders save $1 off a ride, and since you can swipe every 18 minutes (I think), swipers can sell 3 rides an hour so a couple of hours a day at the turnstile pays for the unlimited card. Also, RB's boyfriend is crazy.
Oh, and Opie & Anthony are a medium, as in, part of The Media. They're just not a terribly informative (or funny) medium. The only thing more annoying than the mainstream media are the fringe media personalities who bitch about the media