City Film Bureaucrat Is an Impressively Bad Person, Olbermann Says
And while we’re feeling video-y, here’s Keith Olbermann’s “World’s Worst Person” segment from last night’s Countdown. He gave top honors to Julianne Cho, the official in the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting, who he labels the person behind the city’s proposed new rule requiring that virtually anyone trying to take more than a quick snapshot on the city’s street obtain a permit and $1 million in liability insurance. Creative types are pissed off, civil-liberties types are pissed off, and, apparently, Olbermann is pissed off. We almost feel bad for Cho, who we presume is doing her job and carrying out someone else’s decision and getting beat up for it. But on the other hand, we’re also kind of stoked for her. Olbermann ranked her last night as the worst person above both Rudy Giuliani and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. That’s quite an accomplishment.
Countdown: Worst Person July 31, 2007 [YouTube]
Related: Picturing Protest, Artists Organize to Fight Camera Permit Proposal [NYT]
the morning line
Bloomberg Calling
• People are receiving anonymous, computerized telephone polls asking if they’d support a Bloomberg run for the presidency if he spent $1 billion of his own money on it. When asked if the poll was conducted by Bloomberg, aides in his office refused to confirm or deny it. How very diabolical! [NYDN]