Results tagged “nypost”

On the same day in November that former New York Post editor Sandra Guzman filed a lawsuit accusing the tabloid of ignoring racist and sexual harassment, the paper fired a black reporter named Austin Fenner, who had worked at the city desk. Now Fenner's filed his own lawsuit (using Guzman's lawyer) alleging that he was subject to unfair employment practices, unlawful retaliation, and accusing editors of racially-motivated news coverage. Fenner claims he was "routinely humiliated," "openly cursed at" and subjected to "Jim Crow"-style segregation.

Is Post trying to do at least one Derek Jeter-front page a week? Last week, Jeter's homeless bum cameo for a movie got him front page treatment—and now it's his vacation with girlfriend Minka Kelly!

According to the AP, police officers raided the circulation offices of the NY Times, Daily News, NY Post, and El Diario today "as part of a union corruption probe... Investigators were seeking paperwork related to the Newspaper and Mail Deliverers Union, which packages and delivers newspapers across the region."

The NY Post editor who was fired after complaining about a controversial political cartoon depicting the author of Obama's stimulus package as a dead chimpanzee has filed a major lawsuit against the tabloid, News Corp, and Post editor in chief Col Allan. It's a doozy! In the 38 page complaint, Sandra Guzman accuses her former employer of ignoring racist and sexual harassment, and depicts the Post newsroom as a male-dominated frat house run by the crude, misogynistic Allan. Hardly surprising, but her accusations are juicy nonetheless:

Broadway stage manager for the acclaimed, Tony award-winning production of South Pacific was arraigned last night in Manhattan Supreme Court on a charge of unlawful surveillance. Michael Brunner, 54, turned himself in for questioning after one of the actresses in the show found an iPhone in her dressing room filming her while she changed. The victim also saw Brunner in her dressing room before she walked in. Naturally, the Post has a fantastically awful headline: "A 'South Peep-cific' voyeur rap."

    

Yes Men co-founder Andy Bichlbaum was arrested this morning while demonstrating one of the group's post-apocalyptic SurvivaBalls, described as "a self-contained living system—truly, a gated community for one. If you have a SurvivaBall, even if everyone else is dying, at least you can weather all storms." A spokesperson tells us that Bichlbaum was at Stuy Cove Park, just north of East 20th Street on the East River, wearing a SurvivaBall along with twenty others similarly ensconced. There were about 40 spectators, and so the NYPD, acting on NYC's unconstitutional parade permit law, arrived to break up the citizens' peaceful assembly.

After last November's fake New York Times treatment, lefty political pranksters The Yes Men are back with a fake "Special Climate Edition" of the New York Post. The front page story, "WE'RE SCREWED," covers, in Bizarro-world Post fashion, the catastrophic events which the scientific community expects humanity to endure due to climate change. You can read it all online here, but the culture jammers have also distributed 1 million copies of the print edition city-wide.

It's not exactly news to anyone that print media can sometimes get a story from a blog and "forget" to credit the original source. Maybe they just haven't learned how to hyperlink yet! Most recently the NY Post picked up a story without crediting blogger Miss Heather. Nieman Journalism Lab reports that when she "uncovered a major zoning violation in her Brooklyn neighborhood last month, it was only natural that the New York Post would pick up the story. But credit the blogger? That would be a violation of policy."

Even though it's officially September, it's still sort of like a slow summer news week—which is perhaps why the NY Post is suggesting on its front page that former governor Eliot Spitzer is considering a new statewide run! The headline is tabloid gold, of course. But is there any truth to the story?

A couple of days ago, NY Post columnist Cindy Adams made her opinion of the Times Square chairs be known, saying loud and clear in her headline: "It's Broadway—Not Rockaway!" She went on, saying "the hallway to the Street of Dreams is now Beach 34th Street? What's next? Sand? A boardwalk?" She's worried that the tourists will now only see "Sprawling, bused-in out-of-towners with Coke cans and brown paper bags flat out on camp chairs noshing and burping and snoozing and playing checkers in the center of the capital of the world."

ESPN is playing hardball with the NY Post and has banned the newspaper's reporters from appearing on ESPN channels or radio station because the tabloid published screengrabs of a videotape showing ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews naked in a hotel room. ESPN's VP of communications Chris LaPlaca explained, "Erin was grievously wronged here, and while we understand the Post's decision to cover this as a news story, their running photos obtained in such a fashion went well beyond the boundaries of common decency in the interest of sensationalism. This is not a decision we undertook lightly, but we feel it is an appropriate one." And according to TMZ's expert opinion—after reviewing "six videos shot by the Peeping Tom who secretly videotaped Erin Andrews [as she] walked around naked, not having a clue she was being watched"—the gossip site believes, "The videos raise the suspicion that the person who shot them may have been familiar with her work schedule and may have been traveling with her. Erin's people are on the hunt for the culprit," and adds, "We will not post this video, because it is a clear invasion of privacy."

After a witness told the NY Post that distraught pug owner Chrissie Brodigan shouted at NYC's first Hasidic cop, "You f---ing Jew, you're not even human," her employer suspended her without pay and may terminate her, pending an internal investigation. Brodigan, the VP for Online Media at Plum TV, tells us that after the Post's article appeared, Plum TV's CEO, Chris Glowacki, called her to say she was "lucky not to be fired immediately." (Several requests for comment from Glowacki have gone unanswered.)

The Post has an article looking at the lunchtime habits of some World Trade Center construction workers—specifically the liquid preferences the workers have: "Dozens of workers belly up to the bar at gin mills on Murray Street -- two blocks from the sacred soil of Ground Zero and America's most scrutinized construction project -- shortly before noon every day." At one bar, "three pals plus a fourth worker gulped three beers and two shots of whiskey each during the lunch hour, when the bar was packed with construction workers...openly discuss[ing] their drinking, their Ground Zero work -- and DWI arrests."

The Post follows up its awesome story about how the Tombs—you know, the Manhattan Detention Complex—hosted one inmate's son's bar mitzvah party—complete with knives!— by saying the correction facility "was like a 'private club' for a group of Orthodox Jewish jailbirds, whose politically connected prison-chaplain rabbi regularly treated them to feasts of roast beef, salmon and chicken with all the trimmings." The Post also got hold of a corrections memo which read, "The inmates are untouchable. When it comes to the Jewish inmates, all rules are put aside."

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. continues to back down from a NY Post editorial cartoon in February that featured a dead chimpanzee. The company announced Wednesday that it will form a "diversity community council" to meet with senior New York executives as part of a response to public outcry from civil rights organizations over the chimp cartoon. News Corp. executives met with those organizations last month to hammer out a deal, which spokesman Jack Horner said is similar to policies in place at News Corp. offices elsewhere. "The key is we're always responding and learning from our communities," he told the AP. Serving on the diversity council are expected to be representatives from the NAACP, the National Urban League, the Hispanic Federation, and other New York-area organizations.

The Post is all excited and "EXCLUSIVE" in a "report" on campaign donations made by foreign models to Representative Anthony Weiner's mayoral campaign. Back in June, not long after Weiner made headlines by pushing for visa changes to make it easier for foreign models to work here, a fundraiser was held for his campaign at Merkato 55. According to the Post, the gala was co-hosted by an immigration lawyer whose firm represents some of the top modeling agencies, and several foreign models in attendance made donations ranging from $300 to $500. That's illegal—not because Weiner is rallying to their cause—but because they're not citizens. Weiner's spokesman says it was a simple mistake; they never even deposited the checks, which were returned months ago, and one the models doesn't actually recall attending the party (no surprise there). So why is the Post even talking about this? Because who can resist a headline like, "Weiner's Naughty Hottie$" Certainly not us!

Legendary gossip columnist Liz Smith is leaving the NY tabloid pages: CityRoom spoke to the 86-year-old who explained that NY Post editor-in-chief Col Allan sent her a letter that he was not renewing her contract for her three-times-a-week column, stating, “Like so many other newspapers around the nation, we are buffeted by unprecedented economic gales." Smith joked, “I figure that without having to pay my salary"—$125,000/year—"The Post will immediately go into the black" and did admit to meeting with Rupert Murdoch to protest, "He said he wouldn’t interfere with Col Allan. Well, isn’t he right? Shouldn’t publishers believe in their editors?” (And Murdoch does believe in Allan.) But this gives Smith more time to work on Wowowow.com, the website she co-founded with other female boldface names (and where she just asked New Yorker editor David Remnick his thoughts on the newspaper business conundrum)—plus she plans to syndicate a five-day-a-week column.

Media baron Rupert Murdoch apologized for last week's controversial NY Post cartoon— which shows a fatally shot chimp and one cop saying, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill"— with an statement printed in the NY Post.

As the Chairman of the New York Post, I am ultimately responsible for what is printed in its pages. The buck stops with me.

Continue reading "Rupert Murdoch Apologizes For NY Post Editorial Cartoon"

The Reverend Al Sharpton is taking his complaints about the NY Post's controversial editorial cartoon to Washington D.C. His organization, the National Action Network, wants to collect 1 million email signatures in support of an FCC investigation into Post owner News Corp.'s waiver that allows they to control multiple TV stations and newspapers in one city, noting, "This seems to give an imbalanced monopoly to the public airwaves and an imbalance in commercial speech, in particular, in light of their blatant insensitivity to issues of race (i.e. the N.Y. Post Cartoon) and bias through the use of those publicly owned and federally licensed communication tools." The Daily News also reports that students at Medgar Evars College in Brooklyn shut down their MySpace pages and burnt copies of the post; Marie Antoine, president of the student government association, said, "We are the ones who are putting money in their pockets. They have treated us like animals."

Yesterday afternoon, film director Spike Lee joined the Reverend Al Sharpton and hundreds of others to protest the NY Post's decision to run an editorial cartoon featuring a dead chimp killed by police. Lee said of the paper, "Shut it down... It's not just black folks. It's an insult to everybody."

Two days after controversy erupted when the NY Post ran an editorial cartoon that involved a dead chimp killed by police and a reference to the federal stimulus package, the NY Post has finally apologized. In a way.

Today, NY Post editorial cartoonist Sean Delonas's offering that ties in the Connecticut chimp incident with the federal stimulus package is raising many eyebrows. The Huffington Post's Sam Stein wrote, "At its most benign, the cartoon suggests that the stimulus bill was so bad, monkeys may as well have written it. Most provocatively, it compares the president to a rabid chimp. Either way, the incorporation of violence and (on a darker level) race into politics is bound to be controversial. Perhaps that's what Delonas wanted."

Last Friday, the Post reported that brokers were invited to view Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff's penthouse, as the trustee eyes selling it as part of the the estate liquidation. Apparently one Post reporter was very eager to see the apartment, because the Daily News reports, "A bumbling New York Post reporter was busted Saturday after he tried to sweet-talk his way into... [the] penthouse. Josh Saul, 25, claimed to be a real-estate broker" and had been "escorted upstairs by a doorman and was near the front door of the $50 billion scam artist's $7 million duplex when he was unmasked." Saul was charged with trespassing and given a summons; the News, which refers to the Post as "the fact-challenged tabloid" adds that Saul "is also the dubious star of a Web site that includes photos of him dancing in his underwear, chugging beer from a keg, wearing a woman's wig and balancing objects on his head."

With President-elect Barack Obama getting ready to become Commander in Chief, he will have to contend with the wily Photoshop inclinations of the NY Post during his term. Today, the Post is pretty easy on him, putting him in Abraham Lincoln-style garb (no beard, though) for its story on how some Obama inauguration festivities will harken back to Honest Abe's day. For instance, how "Obama will place his hand on the same Bible that Lincoln used at his first inauguration and "Obama will travel by train from Philadelphia to Washington, DC - part of the route taken by Lincoln during an 1861 trip"—not to mention that the Congressional Inaugural Committee's luncheon will have items like "a seafood stew in puff pastry - including scallops, shrimp and lobster - in honor of Lincoln's love of seafood." Well, this year a bicentennial celebration of all things Lincoln.

Yesterday, the Post published a blog post from exiled Knick point guard Stephon Marbury, and after reading it, you might think he's either delusional or devious. He gives his side of the drama: "I sat on the bench for a whole month and didn't say one word. It wasn't easy because I love to play but that's the nature of the biz. Then they made a trade and needed 8 guys and coach told me he had a certain number of minutes. I was cool. My jersey was never hung in my locker though so I never refused to play. Things were never handled properly. Through it all, I respected their business position to go in another direction just like they have to respect my business position that I have a contract and obligated to pay me. It's the principle of the whole thing. It's really not about the money but it's about the money. Feel me?" Um, it's hard to be sympathetic when he wants his full $21 million for the year. But feel him for yourself by checking the post on the Post's website.

The Daily News makes it clear that it thinks John McCain was a whiner during last night's debate. And it's no surprise that the right-leaning NY Post thinks he was on the attack--but how much of a third debate victory did he score if he has to share the cover with Madonna and Guy Ritchie? (OMG, A-Rod went to Yom Kippur services with Madonna and the kids--no Guy--last week!)

    

Just the kind of thing you'd expect a Warhol superstar to craft up: NY Post and Daily News needlepoint pillows! (Just like grandma used to make.) Brigid Berlin is opening her homespun exhibit at John McWhinnie and Glenn Horowitz Bookseller/Gallery later this month, and Animal reports that "the sixty-nine year old artist is showcasing 10 years of her fantastic embroidery works, including this 'Breaking News' series of New York Post pillows that feature some of the rag's most salacious headlines and crude front covers." She's even got the Keith Richards "I Snorted My Dad" cover in there!

After over three decades at The Post and a 55-year-long career, right-wing "populist" reporter Steve Dunleavy bowed out today, explaining to readers that "when the bones get a bit creaky, you can't stay at the dance too long...I never spent a single hour at Columbia School of Journalism, except when I gave a lecture to journalism students - and I was about as popular as a fire hydrant at the Westchester dog show...Oh, yeah, I will miss those great cops and firefighters, the nutty judges and politicians and the criminal lawyers who were more colorful than an explosion in a paint factory." Here's video of Dunleavy telling the famous story of slashing his dad's tires to get a scoop.

The Post's Steve Cuozzo devotes a column to Wikipedia's many mistakes about NYC. Though he admits he uses it "on such essential matters as which actress plays which bimbo in 'Gossip Girl'," he doesn't understand why its non-pop culture entries--like that of New York City--are so wrong. Besides issues with street information, out-of-date crime data, real estate/architecture details, and the NYPD's community policing initiative, Cuozzo clears up the entry about the NY Post, explaining the 1983 "Headless Body in a Topless Bar" headline was not written by "onetime employee named Paul Beeman. In fact, it's a matter of historical record that the headline was written by then- managing editor VA Musetto (who is today The Post's film editor and Cine File columnist)." [Via Gawker, which thinks Cuozzo's "going to be up 'til at least midnight trying to correct all these things."]

The NY Post discovered Williamsburg today, twice! The articles contradict one another, however, and read as though they're describing two different neighborhoods instead of one in flux. One states that today's "Williamsburgers are families, established professionals" while the other says "young hipsters still rule." Well, which is it? The former declares that "as new luxury condos roll out along the waterfront and flank McCarren Park, upscale businesses are opening to attract an ever more well-heeled clientele (and their families)"; the latter asserts that "the new developments are geared to well-off singles and couples who want to be associated with the area's recent hipness. Catering to the development of a family neighborhood doesn't seem to be the objective." Ergo, Williamsburg is neither ideal for the ironic fanny pack set, nor for the sincere fanny pack set...or is it both? Discuss.