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Editor’s Russell Crowe Impression Does Not Go Over Well in Newsroom
A ‘Daily News’ editor gets suspended after throwing a phone.
Posted 08/28/08 in Daily Intel : Ink-Stained Wretches
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Preppy Ladies Gone Wild?
You have to love crime coverage in New York. When two preppy ladies are caught going into open-house viewings at ritzy apartments and making off with pursefuls of trinkets, it's not a paragraph in the police blotter. It's a page-four story with the headline: "THELMA & LOUISE BUSTED!" Never mind that in the film Thelma & Louise, the two women drive off a cliff to their doom to avoid getting caught by police (as opposed to just driving into traffic away from a real-estate broker on foot), they also killed a man in a bar parking lot. But aside from this old-school take, the Daily News coverage of the string of apartment robberies is quite forward-thinking! They downloaded a picture of Jennifer Jones, one of the accused thieves, from Facebook.com. And she's doing yoga, no less! Now, the News clearly isn't one of Jennifer's 73 friends — otherwise you can imagine all of the Vampire applications they'd be using on her ("Start biting chumps!") — so we can't be sure whether the flexible woman in question is, in fact, a robber. But ever since Virginia Tech, when message boards on Facebook were often the only accurate listings of the missing and wounded, have you noticed that the Website has been adopted as an acceptable, reliable way for news outlets to research young people? Interesting, huh? Also interesting: the fact that Jennifer Jones is 33, and therefore way too old to be on Facebook in the first place. Two women arrested for posing as apt. buyers, then swiping luxury goods [NYDN]
Posted 11/26/07 in Daily Intel : In Other News
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Grudgingly, Editors Open the Door to J-School Students
Normally, editors at the city's august publications roll their eyes when they receive calls from bright-eyed Columbia Journalism School students eager to begin plying their trade. But Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's appearance seems to have created an alliance between those young whippersnappers and their journalism elders. Since attendance for the much-anticipated speech has been restricted to students, who had to register for places in advance, and few reporters, the New York Times and the Daily News, among other news outlets, have hired a few enterprising student stringers to beef up their coverage. "I know a lot of people called the papers and offered their services," said New York's own intern-on-the-inside. "It's a great opportunity for us." Aw, that's sweet. But we don't want to be around when the Times stops returning their texts and changes their Facebook status to "It's Complicated."
Posted 09/24/07 in Daily Intel : Intel
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‘Daily News’: Mayor's Gal Pal Is No Mere Gal Pal
Normally it takes a cop’s funeral, or a fireman’s funeral, or a big win by a local team, or maybe even Lindsay Lohan going to rehab, for a story to make its way to the cover of the Daily News. But today, mysteriously, the paper devotes its front page to a profile of Diana Taylor, Mayor Bloomberg’s girlfriend, former State Bank superintendent, and recently appointed Hudson River Trust chief. So what new and exciting news does reporter Heidi Evans, who earlier this year won a Pulitzer for the paper with her 9/11 reporting, elicit from the city's quasi–First Lady to merit this page-one placement? Um, actually, nothing. Evans had a breakfast of “oatmeal and blueberries” with Taylor, and a side order of girl talk. The only thing we learned from the article — not that we didn't know it already — is that Diana Taylor is much too successful in her own right just be called the mayor’s “Gal Pal.” This is apparently big news to the paper — it's called her that at least sixteen times since 2002. She's Not Just His 'Gal Pal' [NYDN]
Posted 08/13/07 in Daily Intel : In Other News
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Today in Albany: Spitzer's on Defense, Bruno's on Offense, and the ‘Post’ Hates Everyone
The latest news from Albany finds the principals in the Spitzer-Bruno-Cuomo battle defining and refining their positions. Last night, the governor finally abandoned what New York's Steve Fishman called his "silly business-as-usual tactic" and deigned to hand-feed his side of the story to the Daily News. New York's Hometown Paper reports today that Joe Bruno's constant requests to use state aircraft were well known in Albany even before Day One; they became "almost a punch line" after Spitzer inauguration, when, the governor says, people would "just roll their eyes." Still, Spitzer didn't know his own top aides were scheming to expose Bruno, he told the News — and even if he did, the State Senate doesn't have subpoena power over the executive branch anyway. You may notice that these three statements clash with each other slightly, but, hey, he's new at this weaseling-out-of-tight-spots thing. He'll get better.
Posted 07/26/07 in Daily Intel : In Other News
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How Now Dow Jones?
• Thirty or so Bancrofts are converging on a Boston Hilton today to discuss whether they'd like some more money. (Actually, spread across the clan, the estimated $500 million in profit a Dow Jones sale would bring doesn't sound like a staggering amount.) [NYT] • Councilman and former Black Panther Charles Barron (he of the "Sonny Carson" avenue-renaming idea Bloomberg called "the worst ever") announced he's running to replace Marty Markowitz as the Brooklyn beep. Should be a lively campaign, as they say. [NYP] • In rapper-arrest news, Lil Wayne and Ja Rule have been picked up on separate (!) gun-possession charges in busts an hour apart. [WNBC] • Midtown businesses that lost money to last week's steam-pipe blast will not see a red cent from Con Ed — not even restaurants that lost their supplies to spoilage when the power was cut. Some are threatening to sue. [NYDN] • And the Yankees beat the Devil Rays 21-4 last night, which both tabs agree puts the team in the "21 Club." Yuk yuk yuk. [NYDN, NYP]
Posted 07/23/07 in Daily Intel : The Morning Line
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What Does Shelly Have Up His Sleeve?
The Daily News' Daily Politics blog reports that Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's office is calling up members of his Democratic majority as we speak, and asking them to return to Albany tomorrow. Exciting! Also, puzzling. The News deems this "a significant development," but we know it can't be to suddenly pass the now-scuttled congestion-pricing idea — unless Mayor Bloomberg just found some pictures of Silver riding in Alan Hevesi's limo or on Joe Bruno's horse. So what does Shelly need the Assembly for? Some theories: 1. The Lower East Side is dangerously low on pickles and herring; the LES Preserved Foods Preservation Act is in order. 2. He loves to mess with people's vacations, just as a test of loyalty. 3. He read the last page of the leaked Harry Potter and has no one to discuss it with. 4. He just brainstormed a law, retroactive to 2001, that would make it illegal for media-company owners to run for mayor. 5. He needs help getting the gigantic bug out of his ass. Breakthrough? [Daily Politics/NYDN]
Posted 07/18/07 in Daily Intel : In Other News
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A Royal Pain
Prince's highly publicized performance at the Ross School in East Hampton didn't exactly get the crowd going. And he wouldn't attend the after-party until everyone else left. Padma Lakshmi has been spending a lot of time with billionaire Teddy Fortsmann. Hillary Clinton has a subscription to the Post but not the Daily News. Jon Lovitz put a beating on Andy Dick at an L.A. comedy club during an argument over murdered SNL star Phil Hartman. Paris Hilton drugged her newest boyfriend with pills. Naomi Campbell gets to throw a temper tantrum in a Dunkin' Donuts commercial directed by Zach Braff. Some staffers don't like the cubicles and the food-paying system in the new New York Times building.
Posted 07/17/07 in Daily Intel : Gossipmonger
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‘Daily News’: America Likes Mike (a Little)
The Daily News traveled beyond the Hudson to ask America about Mike Bloomberg, and they come back with some news: The country doesn't hate him. The mayor's aw-shucks joke is to pronounce his unelectability as "a short Jewish billionaire from New York." But the News poll, the paper says today, shows that a quick recitation of his achievements bumps his numbers from 10 percent who'd vote for him to 13 percent. (Oddly, the initiative that seems to most resonate with the heartland is the school cell-phone ban.)
Posted 07/16/07 in Daily Intel : In Other News
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The ‘Daily News’ Is Not an Extraordinary Conglomeration of Multi-Functional Personnel
It's no secret that enterprising Webtrepreneurs often buy Web addresses just a few characters away from popular ones, counting on typos to deliver you to their penis-enlargement pitches or AdSense agglomerations. But, as we discovered this morning, those seeking the Website for the New York Daily News, which is at www.nydailynews.com, should make especially sure to get the full address in. A sleepily typed www.nydaily.com took us not to our Hometown Paper but to 123 Escorts, which offers Kim ("Just arrived in town!") and Evian ("Here for a short time!") among its "extraordinary conglomeration of bright, amiable, multi-functional personnel." It's not that we think such things will offend News readers' delicate sensibilities. We're just concerned they won't be able to handle the porn site's vocabulary.
Posted 06/20/07 in Daily Intel : Intel
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How to Make Easton Ellis’s Imaginary Lit Feud More Interesting
God, are literary feuds lame lately — even, or especially, fake ones. Watch, for example, today's Daily News try to imply there's some beef afoot between Bret Easton Ellis and mentee Jeff Hobbs. What happened? Ellis didn't show up to the book party (at the Box, natch) for Hobbs's novel, The Tourists, about misbehaving Yale grads. The third paragraph casually mentions that Ellis lives in L.A., and the best evidence Rush and Molloy can dig up on the rift is that Ellis and Hobbs haven't seen talked in "three or four weeks." Say it ain't so! If they're determined to find a fight, we suggest they pick up on Ellis's quote in which he says Hobbs "has a lot of interesting things to say about that generation's fluidity about sexuality," and then plainly, just this side of legally, allege Ellis's own "fluidity" with Hobbs: Why else would he even be expected to fly cross-country to the Box in the first place? Then, suddenly, the news item's joke about "the well-endowed (um, with literary talent) Ellis" doesn't, um, dangle. Odds of a Rift Between Ellis and Protege: Less Than Zero [NYDN]
Posted 06/13/07 in Daily Intel : In Other News
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Shamed Analyst Sues Fox Over ‘Borat’
FINANCE • A former JPMorgan analyst is suing Twentieth Century Fox for Borat-related "public ridicule, degradation, and humiliation." [DealBreaker] • Wachtell, Lipton sent around a memo to clients explaining a tax loophole that makes CFO salaries over $1 million tax deductible. Thus was the first rule of the tax-loophole club broken. [DealBook/NYT] • In a study of hours worked in developed nations, the U.S. only ranks sixth. Somehow, we got beat by Australia and New Zealand. [CNNMoney]
Posted 06/08/07 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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Man the Buckets! Long Term Capital Is (Sort Of) Back!
FINANCE • Some of Long Term Capital's former executives are making another go of it with a new fund, Quantitative Alternatives. [Bloomberg via DealBook/NYT] • Morgan Stanley will pay $8 million to settle federal fraud charges over its alleged failure to get the best prices possible for retail stock investors. [AP via NYT] • The SEC will announce Monday whether it will appeal a court ruling that overturns the "Merrill Lynch" rule, allowing brokers to offer fee-based services to clients without being registered as financial advisers. [NYP]
Posted 05/10/07 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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Sprung From Cages on Highway 9
• New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine apologized from a wheelchair for the careless driving that led to his crash. Then he rode home from the hospital, fifteen miles over the speed limit. [NYP] • In the meantime, perennial bridesmaid Richard Codey is easing into his third acting-governor gig in six years — this time, unlike during the McGreevey denouement, without a personal staff and with an elected leader watching over him. [NYT] • Owner Hilly Kristal is having second thoughts about the CBGB-in-Vegas thing, turning down investor after investor because "the focus has to be on new acts, new interesting things." We could certainly use that thinking for, let's see, the last fifteen years of the original CB's. [MetroNY] • After losing two men in a week to freak train accidents, MTA has decided to halt all track work pending a safety review. Workers say that a lack of two-way radios may be to blame. [amNY] • And "as a thank-you to our readers," the Daily News costs 25 cents this week — starting, that is, the exact same day the Post began charging 50 cents again. The extreme-skinflint demographic is theirs! Temporarily! [NYDN]
Posted 05/01/07 in Daily Intel : The Morning Line
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We Want to Work for the Port Authority
Today's Daily News takes a look at the Port Authority's payroll, and the only possible reaction to the findings is this: "Where do we sign up for a job there?" The paper made Ralph Berlangieri, a gardener who took home $102,700 in 2006, the exposé's marquee star, but there is a wealth of talented supporting players. One electrician, for instance, earned $124,000 last year; 50 Port Authority cops take home more than $200K. Of course, police officers and electricians put their lives on the line, albeit in two different ways, so perhaps deserve big paydays. But then there's the toll collector making $86,000, a garage attendant with a $67,000 salary, and not one but two full-time salad makers at $40,000-plus each. But, hey, don't worry about it: The Port Authority's got plenty of money to spend. After all, it's not like they have to keep cutting back the big downtown PATH station for lack of sufficient funds. Oh, wait. 103G(reen) Thumb [NYDN] Related: Career Opportunities [Port Authority]
Posted 04/24/07 in Daily Intel : In Other News
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Pulitzers Announced; ‘Times’ Only Wins One
The Pulitzer Prizes were announced about a half-hour ago, and let's put it this way: It's a good day for Hassan Elmasry. The Times snagged only one award this year, in the Feature Writing category. That's the same total as the Daily News and Newsday — and for that matter, the Oregonian, the Miami Herald, the Los Angeles Times — which all also won one prize, but without the pesky dual-class ownership that Elmasry so dislikes and we'd all like to argue protects the paper's superior journalism. Then again, it was a year without any big winners, and the only paper to win two prizes — the Wall Street Journal, with Public Service and International Reporting — is a dual-class paper, too. Congratulations, Bancrofts. The Pulitzer Prizes 2007 [Pulitzer.org]
Posted 04/16/07 in Daily Intel : It Just Happened
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Britney, Artist?
We've already established that today is contemporary- art day in New York. But is it possible that seemingly bottoming-out Britney Spears is actually mounting a shockingly highbrow and witty performance piece? Consider: At left is Ms. Spears on the cover of today's Daily News; at right is half of Pipilotti Rist's Ever Is Over All, a 1997 video installation in MoMA's collection. Coincidence? —Karen Rosenberg Brit Freaks Again as Train Wreck Rolls On [NYDN] Pipilotti Rist. Ever Is Over All. 1997. [MoMA.org] Earlier: Daily Intel's coverage of the Armory Show
Posted 02/23/07 in Daily Intel : Cultural Capital
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Not Leavin' on a Jet Plane
• Jet Blue, the generally beloved low-cost carrier, made a lot of people's shit lists last night: It stranded hundreds of JFK passengers on the tarmac — on immobile planes — for up to ten hours. On Valentine's Day. Let's hope, at least, some romance bloomed in the forced close quarters. [amNY] • The Daily News is issuing a Cesar Borja mea culpa. The paper that had lionized the late cop the most says it had no factual basis for calling him a "volunteer" (he wasn't) or implying he had rushed to the WTC site on 9/11 (he didn't). [NYDN] • In a development the Post — and just about only the Post — finds "shocking," it turns out Hillary Clinton had signed a $200K contract with a consulting firm headed by a prominent South Carolina politician days before said politician endorsed her. [NYP] • That classic New York boogeyman — stray sidewalk electricity — is back. This time, the victim is a pet. Not even twenty minutes of mouth-to-mouth CPR could save the terrier named Boston Bob, apparently electrocuted when he stepped on a manhole cover. [NYDN] • And speaking of classic boogeymen: Apparently, Son of Sam's apartment in Yonkers is a bit of a tourist destination — with a Times profile that eerily smacks of a real-estate listing. ("Apartment 7E, a studio with sweeping views of the Hudson River …") [NYT]
Posted 02/15/07 in Daily Intel : The Morning Line
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Rupert Knows Whether Judith Regan's Kids Are Actually Honor Students
Lawyers for HarperCollins are in possession of Judith Regan's financial statements, will, divorce papers, photographs of her children, unopened Christmas gifts, and a 20-by-30-foot painting of her, among other things. Because she left them all at that office. Ralph Ellison didn't like Norman Mailer and his beat pals because they reduced the world to sex. As Harvey Weinstein was buying the rights to her movie, Mandy Moore was making out with D.J. AM. Hugo Chavez tried to meet Gisele when they were both in Rio, but she shot him down. Owen Wilson hung out with Kate Hudson in Australia.
Posted 01/25/07 in Daily Intel : Gossipmonger
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One Day, Everything Will Be Named for the ‘Daily Show’ Host
• The Post has "Mob scion" Chris Colombo on tape waxing nostalgic about the days of former New York A.G. Dennis Vacco: "Spitzer is the worst. Vacco was the best. He didn't care about anything. I had a hook in him." Oh, the election ad that would have made. [NYP] • So there's JFK, La Guardia, Newark and … Stewart? With the Spitz's blessing, the Port Authority is about to buy an underused airport 60 miles north of the city and turn it into the region's fourth international hub. Pataki, apparently, hated the idea. [NYT] • We suppose it was inevitable: The issue of how to list the names of WTC victims on the 9/11 memorial — alphabetically, at random, in weird associative clusters — is now fodder for hysterical TV ads running on NY1. [amNY] • So there's this $140 million police-radio system the MTA had been installing in the subways for ten years. It's done, but the cops won't use it: Everything sounds "as if you're talking through a glass of water." A $140 million glass of water. [NYT] • And the Daily News somehow "learned," unprompted by any recent developments, that Thor Equities is planning to redevelop Coney Island as a "glitzy playground" — a plan in the works for years. Let's not tell the paper about the whole WTC memorial thing; it might upset them. [NYDN]
Posted 01/25/07 in Daily Intel : The Morning Line
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