Great Moments in Local News Buffonery

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Last night on the WNBC eleven o'clock telecast, Monica Morales was doing a standup in front of The Falls, reporting on the brutal rape and murder of Imette St. Guillen. That's when Happy Gilmore here decided to go for his 15 milliseconds of fame-- throwing up the horns and screaming. He managed to get about halfway into the frame when the quick thinking cameraman panned up to the awning of the bar. We're always willing to give props to citizens who insert themselves in the background of local news shots-- what's more New York than yelling "hey, mom, I'm on the news"? Still, this was in poor taste. Screwing with Al Roker is one thing-- but interrupting a report on something like this? Definitely uncool.

One more picture after the jump, in case you want to ID the perp.

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Great, now this is more encouragement to these morons. Remember those morons who were fans of a certain satellite radio show that were running around like idiots? One of them attacked a reporter last year and another one got Arthur Chi'en mad, causing him to use some foul language which got him fired from WCBS.
These people should have reporters come to their place of employment and bother them while they work.

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We're always willing to give props to citizens who insert themselves in the background of local news shots...Still, this was just in poor taste

your form of moral relativism assumes that he knew the context of the report, which is unlikely.

Everyone wants their 15 minutes.....isn't the camera man/woman supposed to alert the newscastor and motion him/her to move? Don't they run into this a lot?

Notice that this happened on a Friday night.
News crews were all over these bars for the past week and this happened only on Friday.
Why? As others have noted, the murderer was a guy or guys that went out for fun and then things changed drasticly when they went a little "overboard". And, had to cover their tracks.
The sketch of the taxi cab driver has been dismissed as a suspect and is not considered involved in this case.

The reporters who are reporting outside of The Falls are nothing but vultures. This is a tragic story no doubt and I mean no disrespect to the girl or her family and friends. But as I see it the job of the news media is to convert a tragedy like this into ratings and advertising $$$. If you've been by The Falls lately, you'll see that there are still several news trucks there reporting "live from the scene". They are nothing but vultures circling a carcass to pick off some meat to feed the corporate machine.

"...this was just in poor taste-- screwing with Al Roker is one thing-- but interupting a report on something like this? That's just in poor taste."

This is just the worst writing.

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I agree with doosh. I can't get anything published on Gothamist for the life of me and meanwhile they're letting crap like this run? Talk about cronieism.

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thanks for catching that mangled last sentence-- i fixed it up a bit.

Yeah, probably the Gothamist staff is just as incestuous as the staff of any site like this... but I really dig that the person complaining about not being published misspelled the problem they were complaning about. Y kant Tori get published???

"Buffonery"? Is that a word?

The question is, is it better to live in obscurity hidden in the crowds, or stand out and prove you're an imbecile. I prefer the former, but apparently this guy has no qualms about doing the latter. What he needs is for everybody in his workplace to point and snicker (perhaps even outright laugh at him) to puncture his pathetically overinflated ego.

"It is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool, then to open it and remove all doubt." --- GB Shaw

Rev, I'm ususally down with you, but I don't think carving your initials on a woman's genitalia after you've sealed her with packing tape is "going too far." When they catch this guy, I'm not sure the "things got out of hand" defense is going to fly.

Fratboys will be fratboys....
That's all it is.
The Falls is fratty-type bar w/it's sibling bar on the Upper East Side: Dorian's. Drunken morons of both genders patronize these bars incestuously,
I mean no disrepect to Imette St. Guillen as I did not know her.
I live right near here & haven't really even walked in front of the Falls since it opened. I don't like their clientele.
Reporters that are choosing to film right in front of the eye of the frat boy storm should be prepared for this type of standard behavior.

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I find myself agreeing with Gary - the whole local news scene resembles nothing so much as sustained, well-paid buffoonery. "Here's (name your favorite reporter) live - in a dark parking lot outside a supermarket where something happened twelve hours ago! But we put him/her there, so we could stick a "LIVE" sign in your screen's upper left corner! Are we cool, and on top of it, or what?" Well, no, in my view; you just look like a bunch of idiots putting somebody out there in a dark and empty parking lot because something happened there this morning. The Happy Gilmore factor adds nothing, but the newsies were bad enough left to their own devices.
I've often thought that the eleven-o'clock news should probably be over by about 11:05. Five minutes is enough to deliver the actual news - the rest of it's fluff, background, speculation, and BS, frankly. "Earlier tofday this event happened in this place. The police are clueless, but working on it." End of actual news value of story; all else is filler.

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you're right, Anyato, i should check my spelling before i do any "complaning"

wait, i mean...

I live across the street from The Falls and I agree with its characterization as a "frat bar." So the fact that there's some idiot in the background makes perfect sense.

Also: Last night, Channel 7 said they were doing a "live" report outside The Falls, so I looked outside my window to see if they were there, and there was no one there. So, apparently, even the "live" designation is phony.

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