Here's the only place EMT commissioner Peruggia scores a win
Today's tabloids, Jan. 6, 2011.
1:26 pm Jan. 6, 2011
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: So, why do New York City men … s***k? (Let's put aside for the moment that a newspaper that is not willing to spell out the word "suck" needs to find another word that it can print for the front page. This is all very sad and downmarket and Boston Herald.) We've got two pages inside and a large picture of a nameless woman looking forlorn and, frankly, a little undateable (what is up with her sweater?) and large type asking the question. When you get there it turns out the whole thing is pegged to the season finale of "Millionaire Matchmaker" on Tuesday night. Hostess Patti Stanger says "I blame the guys!" It's not clear why—except that men in New York, with all of their professional commitments, aren't as concerned about settling down. "Men in New York are more selfish these days. They want to hold on to their money, and they’re in no rush to find a mate," she said. So given this unhealthy environment for prospective brides (they outnumber prospective grooms, according to Stanger, 5 to 1!) we've got some tips for you girls. One of them is just to SMILE MORE!
There's also a before-and-after picture of a homeless man from Ohio. His routine, in which he acted like a radio announcer to cars he stopped to beg for money (it came naturally as, before he fell into a vortex of drugs and easy women, he was a radio announcer!) went viral on YouTube and now there are lots of job offers. Is it just us thinking he doesn't look much better in the After than the Before? It's a little like taking smoking out of bars: the shave and haircut just sort of emphasize the ravages of his face. But then, radio has no face, right? The headline: BUMANZA!
Lupica thinks the Jets have to beat the Colts or the Rex Ryan triumphalism will be finally impossible to sustain. This also gets significant cover treatment.
The New York Post: "Weeper of the House" is a pun. "Speaker of the House" sounds a bit like it! And John Boehner, who as you know, cries at the drop of a hat, is snuffling into a handkerchief as Nancy Pelosi introduces him as our new speaker. "For crying out loud!" begins the long caption. It's a nice "It Happened Yesterday" photo, a historic event that somehow was also not quite newsworthy, so they had to find something to do, right?
Of more significance is the news that the city has demoted Emergency Medical Services chief John Peruggia in the wake of Blizzardgate. It's a little strange: "Sources told The Post Peruggia was dumped because of the inadequate response of EMS during the Dec. 26-27 storm, when ambulances got stuck in the 20-inch snow and there was a 1,300-call backlog in the 911 system." But the day after the blizzard wasn't Bloomberg telling us the 911 backups were functions of the sanitation department's inability to keep up with the falling snow?
There's a strip at the bottom noting that taxes were front and center in incoming Governor Andrew Cuomo's State of the State; sedate, really, in light of the rest of the page, and unclear. "Cuomo: 'NY has no future as nation's tax capital'" it reads. Wha?
Observations: We're concerned chiefly with the observations today. The News seems to have found little news worth covering on its front page. Let's call the Patti Stanger thing what it is: unmitigated trash that won't likely pass the smell test even for commuters who like to get their morning television all over again in print form after they've consumed it on the more effective platform. Bumanza is some kind of joke—a frequently repeated one on News fronts, where you take a phenomenon that has already happened on YouTube and on network morning shows and then make a boring article out of it. And the Jets story is a no-sale at least partly because it also takes up the whole back cover, leaving it at more than a full page of cover treatment. The coming Jets game is a big deal and it's hard to get this pre-game stuff right. That's why you give it a small snipe on the front and play it big on the back. This is neither.
The Post doesn't fare much better. This Boehner photo is really just a photo; there's no angle on this for us, and it feels like an if-you-must rehash. The only people who care or will be drawn in already likely know more than the Post can present, so why bother? Really, the demotion of Peruggia is the closest thing to a story we've got on the fronts today, and so it has to win the day.
Winner: The New York Post.
