Mosque, Dragon Tattoo faceoffs do not distract from K-Rod tabloid battle
Today's tabloids, August 17, 2010.
11:07 am Aug. 17, 20101
Each day, the New York tabloids vie to sell readers at the newsstands on outrageous headlines, dramatic photography, and, occasionally, great reporting. Who is today's winner?
Daily News: A musician friend of mine once told me he thought the most basic decision in a musician or a band's signature was where the percussion is. Do the drums lead or do the drums follow? I usually don't have a good enough ear to get it right while listening, but the concept has stuck with me. Today, no doubt in part because of our declaration of the Post as yesterday's winner for going crazy over Hamas leaders' endorsement of an Islamic cultural center in the general vicinity of Ground Zero, the News decides to go big on a mosque story. But, their drums are just behind the melody. "MOSQUE WARS" reads the hed: "Now Obama takes it on the chin from Dems & GOP." All of which happened yesterday, and none of it at the instigation of the News. It's not a bad thing to cover like mad today, but it's hard not to compare yeserday's Post wood to today's News. Of course we don't do that here. So suffice it to ask the question we so often ask: When the cable networks and radio and internet are going full blast on something, is it worthwhile to show up in print the following morning with what is essentially a roundup you can't click on?
The News spends the rest of its wood on the news that Francisco Rodriquez sustained an injury to his thumb during last week's dust-up with his father-in-law and is now probably out for the season, though the circumstances are partly a union issue and a strategic issue for team management. "Punched out!" is a pretty nice headline for this! (Get it? He's "off the clock.")
But since "MOSQUE WARS" is a heavy, black type affair, the Picture Newspaper is having to blow up a close-up of K-Rod to balance the page, leaving the type of the hed at up-and-down knockout white on blue. Feels more like being anesthetized than being punched out. For now we will ignore the little red box touting the story of Michael Douglas' cancer diagnosis.
The New York Post: So where the News looks a little defensive today, the Post looks aggressive: Sure, it's possible the paper would have touted the news of the selection of Rooney Mara, great-granddaughter of Giants founder Tim Mara and Pittsburgh Steelers founder Art Rooney, for the role of Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher's remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Yesterday, the News went big with a report that Scarlett Johansson was up for the role, wanted it, and "might" be a "shoo-in" for it. Take that, Mort!
I'm ignoring the Eli football story, and turn your attention to "K-ROD KO'd: Punch injury ends his season." Alliteration, but no pun, which is a bit disappointing. But with the amount of space it saves leaving the mosque story to the News for today, they get a nice big picture of K-Rod and nice big knockout type over the photo.
Observations: I note the Rooney Mara story on the front page of the Post and the mosque story on the News mostly because we can't let that little battle pass without notice. But as I've said before, it's sudden-death: A reader this morning doesn't get to replace yesterday's Daily News with the Johansson cover with today's Post with the Rooney Mara cover; and the people who bought the Post yesterday won't be licking their chops to read revenge between the lines of the News mosque story. Both the Eli Manning box on the Post and the Michael Douglas story on the News look like ballast to me. The voting issue today is K-Rod. And that's where the mosque story becomes important again: It wasted too much room on the News, far more than the Post's vindictive Dragon Tattoo box did on its front. The News has the better headline, but it's lost in a sea of blue ink and looks a bit like packaging for a feminine product of some kind.
Winner: The New York Post.
I dunno... NY Post has better use of the wood (which is what we're all about here) but then again... Michael Douglas battling cancer... kind of intrigued....
Nah, Post it is.