The Post Loses it Over A.O.C.
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Jeez,
New York Post
– Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez really drives you crazy, huh?
We know she makes conservatives nuts, with her Green New Deal, her dreams of single-payer healthcare, and her college-era dance videos. She's also
causing agita for Democrats
. But with you it’s become, like,
a thing
.
Did you really put her on the front page two days in a row because she rides in vehicles with internal combustion engines? Did you really use puns that would have made
the author
of HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR groan?
ECO TRIP
and
FUEL TO THE IRE
seemed like the kind of first tries that land on the city room floor. Are you focusing?
It’s not like you invented the driving story - AOC in fact took 1,049 rides with Uber, Lyft, Juno and other services at a cost of $29,365,70 while fellow house freshman Max Rose listed only 329 rides at a cost of just over $6,000. And his district includes Staten Island, land of wide-open, subway-free spaces.
But on the tabloid hypocrisy scale we’d give it a four. The stories belonged somewhere inside the paper, like the one suggesting she might have
paid her boyfriend
in violation of campaign rules
, or the ones questioning whether she lives in her late father’s apartment in Parkchester. These were reasonable mini-gotchas, we suppose. But if you’re out to destroy her because she’s liberal and popular, you’re not doing a very good job of it.
None of the
Post’s
stories landed nearly as clean a hit as J. David Goodman’s piece in
The New York Times
questioning why Ocasio-Cortez hadn’t opened a district office. Her spokespeople, usually pretty nimble, stepped in it when they blamed the government shutdown. Alas, the three other freshmen elected with AOC had already opened their district offices.
So what gives,
New York Post
?
Maybe you watched that video of her dancing atop the Arts and Sciences building at Boston University and resented that she was super cool. Maybe you watched her question Michael Cohen and had to admit she was pretty damned effective.
Then again, maybe you’re just jealous. After all, you have 1.45 million followers on Twitter. And she has
3.41 million
.
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The Unsung Heroes of the Subway Deal
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The biggest winners in the governor and mayor’s joint plan to save the subways were the riders who miserably stop-and-start their way to work each day. But another constituency can claim victory, too.
To quote Humphrey Bogart at the end of
Deadline - U.S.A.,
that’s the press, baby
.
New York’s aggressive cabal of transit reporters is unlike that of any other city. First of all, there’s a whole bunch of them. They dig deep into budgets. They attend public meetings. They talk tracks, signals and switches over drinks (they really do).
And they won this round, big.
Once a single story in
The Daily News
or
The Post
could cost a commissioner her job
for buying a $3,000 pink sofa
. No longer. But when all the big news outlets throw their resources at a single story, results can still be had.
“
When I started covering transit for New York 1 in 2013, I was more often than not the only television reporter covering MTA meetings and the slide of the subway,” said Jose Martinez, who recently departed the station to cover the same beat at
The City
, the new nonprofit.
“Within four years, with the subway
at its lowest point in many years
, those meetings were packed with cameras,” he said. “And I had to show up 60-90 minutes early to claim a spot for my tripod. Everyone was paying attention.”
And that’s why the subways are fixed and shiny and clean and running on schedule with lower fares.
Okay, we’re kidding about that; Martinez and his transit beat buddies are reporters, not miracle workers. But their next drink is on us.
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Daily News to Scotto: Drop Dead
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Before we get any mistier about the city's newspapers, let’s stop to consider the
Daily News’
front page on Tuesday.
It was a maddening abuse of power. But
The News
left out one key detail: New York 1’s Mike Scotto
broke the story
the day before.
Scotto, a gentleman if ever there was one, did not take to social media to throw shade at the tabloid, as others might have (and
did
). He used his
Twitter feed
to simply continue reporting the story. Sure, this wasn’t as bad as the time Rep. Michael Grimm threatened to throw him
off a balcony,
but it still had to be galling to be the victim of such blatant journalistic shoplifting.
We wish we were as unflappable as this supremely gifted reporter, but since we’re not here’s a message to the
News
: Show some more class next time.
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Merchants of Truth: Epilogue
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Former
Times
Executive Editor Jill Abramson did what she could to parry plagiarism allegations against her book “Merchants of Truth” last month, but there’s no doubt the accusations cast a shadow over her tome about journalism’s digital transformation. So now, four weeks later, how’s the book doing?
Maybe the unrelenting plagiarism accusations killed it in the crib. Or maybe the rest of the world doesn't care so much about the industry’s digital transformation.
Kyle Pope explored this phenomenon in
a smart essay
in the
Columbia Journalism Review
, which he edits, entitled “Getting Over Ourselves.”
“
Journalism’s next great project has to be not looking in the mirror (which we’ve become quite good at over the past two years, first obsessing over every flaw and blemish, then staring in awe at our own self-importance),” he wrote, “but honestly assessing how others see us, and how we can see them better.”
So maybe the lackluster performance of “Merchants of Truth” isn’t solely Abramson’s fault. Maybe it just wasn’t a $1 million book to begin with.
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Here and There
Jared Hohlt
, after 20 years at
New York Magazine
, becomes editor of
Slate
…
Lisa Chow
,
Eric Krupke
,
Marc Georges
and
Adizah Eghan
join the “The Daily” at
The Times
…
Louise Story
, previously of
The Times
and very briefly of Tronc, is now at the
Wall Street Journal
and making
lots of hires
… glimmers of hope?
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“Trump has told confidants that he has ranked the loyalty of many reporters on a scale of 1 to 10. Bret Baier, Fox News’ chief political anchor, is a 6; Hannity a solid 10. Steve Doocy, the co-host of “Fox & Friends,” is so adoring that Trump gives him a 12.
” –
Jane Mayer in The New Yorker.
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Kirtzman Strategies is a strategic communications and public affairs firm that works with public officials, nonprofits, companies, tech startups and education organizations.
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