The New York Observer » New York Post

New York Transit Workers Give Prize For Photo of Ugliest Rat on Subway

Well this is just very good publicity for the MTA. We can't believe they didn't think of this sooner: in an effort to raise awareness for their Rat Free Subways initiative, the TWU held a contest in which the person who took the ugliest photo of a vermin would win a free monthly Metrocard.

Which you'd think would just make people look even harder for horrifically mutilated rats on the subway track, the point of which we can't even begin to fathom. But anyway: we have a winner! Don't click below unless you want to see it!

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Bey-Z’s Big Debut: Beyonce and Jay-Z’s Messianic Baby Makes NYC’s Front Pages, But Did They Bury The Lede?

As Cindy Adams would say: Only in New York, kids. Only in New York. Read More

No More Wonderful Prizes For Sleeping With Derek Jeter

Several weeks ago, we reported on the oft-heard rumor that if you are lucky enough to catch the Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter's penis and put it inside you, you would go home the next morning with a gifting suite worth of goodies. (Including but not limited to a signed baseball! How very Freudian.) The best part of all? There wasn't a cap on how many times you could pull the one-night-stand move on Mr. Jeter, since he apparently has the memory of a goldfish when it comes to the women he's bedded.

Sorry ladies, but your free ride is officially over.

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Another Budget Crisis?

In a troubling development, the state missed an important budget deadline earlier this month when Governor Cuomo’s office failed to deliver a review of New York’s current budget along with tentative revenue projections for next year. Under budget reforms passed in 2007, the governor is supposed to deliver a mid-fiscal year budget report on Nov. 5. Legislative leaders follow-up with revenue projections of their own, and they and the governor sit down to hash out their differences. The idea is to create a more transparent, less rushed budget process.

Mr. Cuomo’s office said that turmoil in global markets has made the process much more complicated this year. That’s certainly plausible, but still, a missed deadline is a missed deadline. The mid-fiscal year review was established to ensure that the budget process is more transparent and rational than it has been in the past. So the missed deadline is a cause for concern. Read More

Which Daily Was Tipped Off to NYPD’s Zuccotti Raid?

Note: This is an early edition of the New York Post (via newseum.org). Ours had a photo of cops in riot gear with the headline, "Cops Storm Zuccotti: Evict bums in OWS raid early today." However, the big OWS story inside is still about Read More

Daily News Still Looking for a Business Model, Says Memo

After a week of attrition and turmoil at the Daily News, CEO Bill Holiber dropped by the newsroom last Wednesday to deliver a pep talk. At the same time, he sent all staff a rallying memo that invoked the paper’s stance as the populist anti-New York Post. "Since 1919," he wrote, "the Read More

Wherein We Continue to Cover How ‘The New York Post’ is Covering Occupy Wall Street

The endless cycle of the media reporting on the media reporting on Occupy Wall Street is absolutely the world's most filthy ouroborous (except when it's the media covering the media's reaction to the Kardashian divorce), but we can't help ourselves. The New York Post has picked its angle for the protesters, and they're not even trying to come up with things that make sense anymore. We were about their journalistic objectivity two weeks ago when they compared the protesters to Nazis. Then last week they ran an editorial cover story that made the protesters sound like the Dogs of War from Road Warrior.

Now they are talking about the "terrorizing" of Panini & Co. Bread across the street from Zuccotti, and you can tell it's just a stretch, even for them. Can you believe protesters are demanding water now?
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‘New York Post’s Full Frontal Attack On Occupy Wall Street

How does that saying go? First they laugh at you, then they compare you to Nazis, then they tell everyone you are selling drugs and acting like criminals, then they show a dubious video where a crazy person gets beat up by an angry Turkish man for kicking his tent down, and then you win?

So take heart, Occupiers. The New York Post's ridiculous coverage of your seedy, criminal underbelly is starting to make you guys look good in comparison.

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Reading Between the Lines: ‘New York Post’ Supports Message of Occupy Wall Street

You might read this morning's editorial in the New York Post, "Time to throw the bums out," as a knock on the Occupy Wall Street protests. After all, so far the paper has been pretty negative about the whole Zuccotti Park scene, calling it a drug-laden, hippie den that is a breeding ground for sexual malarkey and criminal activity. But it turns out the Post is quite sympathetic to the cause...if you read between the lines.
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New York Post Declares Occupy Wall Street New “Druggy” Hangout

While The New York Times used its editorial power this weekend to come out in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement, not all of the city's papers feel the same way.

"Squatters and Drug Addicts Invade Zuccotti Park" read the fear-mongering headline in this morning's New York Post, citing as evidence the dirty people "occupying" the McDonald's across the park. Said one source:
“The other day, there was a guy charging people $5 to use the McDonald’s bathroom. He was on LSD or high on something.”

(If the Post had done its research, it would know that the McDonald's is where people go to get away from LSD-offerings.)
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Socialite Justin Ross Lee is Broke, Living American Dream

"I'm living the American dream," socialite and self-proclaimed "Super Jew" Justin Ross Lee tells us after the New York Post ran a story about his bankruptcy filing yesterday. "You can't be anyone in America until you've filed for bankruptcy. Trump, Lorenzo Lamas, Baldwin..they've all filed." Read More

Lawyer for NY Attorney General Punished for Dominatrix Side Gig

Alisha Smith, a 36-year-old lawyer at the New York State Office of the Attorney General was suspended without pay after the New York Post got wind that the settlement pro spent her nights making very different kinds of binding agreements. According to the Post's sources, this matter had less to do with the nature of Ms. Smith's outside employment, but the fact that she had a second job at all:

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New York Post Headline Writer Dead at 43

Another sad day for the city's wood. Veteran New York Post copy editor and front-page headline writer Joseph Brendan Cunningham died Thursday of complications following a stroke. He was 43. Cunningham made a name for himself with the Jan. 24, 2003: “Axis of Weasel," which referred to US allies Germany and France, who were Read More

Keith Kelly Takes a Break From His Vacation to Take a Shot at News Corp. Critic Michael Wolff

The New York Post says media columnist Keith Kelly is on vacation, but it appears he found time to contribute reporting to today's article, "Staff Cries Wolff," which says anonymous Adweek executives are considering not renewing editorial director Michael Wolff's contract next month, citing his reportedly brusque management and loose spending practices. Read More

Some Things Never Change: ‘Hamptons Hos’ Are The New ‘Velcro Mafia’

"'I’ve had girls who’d take the bus over and linger around, then have sex with anyone who had a house,” says Almendral, the 50-year-old managing director of the Wall Street Solutions Group Inc. 'They weren’t hookers. They got by through the kindness of strangers . . . they see the Hamptons as an adventure that’s Read More