Various business owners explained that the sight of the protestors organizing in the area and marching up and down the sidewalks intimidates potential customers and deters many people from making any purchases. One employee from Pret A Manger, a coffee and sandwich shop, complained that protestors organize impromptu meetings in their establishment, forcing workers to stay late for “hours past closing time.” The manager of a local Chinese resturant reported seeing dirty clothes all over the bathroom floors.

Last week, the owner of Panini & Co. Breads told the Post that she and her employees have been threatened and harassed by members of OWS, and have been causing general mayhem inside the establishment.

The final straw came about two weeks ago, when the demonstrators broke a bathroom sink, flooding the shop, and clogged the toilet — setting her back $3,000 in damages.

She put up a sign that said the bathroom was out of order, but they tore it down shortly afterward, she said.

“I have the police in here 10 times a day, [and] I’m the bouncer. I’ve been called the spawn of the devil. “It’s unbelievable what goes on in here every day.”

Cafe Health World has also complained about the protestors. Goldman Sachs employees would often order takeout from there, but now, according to the manager, “no one wants to stay in the Financial District.” The Christian Science Monitor details how small businesses in other cities like Oakland and Philadelphia have been hit by protests in those cities.

Occupy Wall Street has grown and evolved into its own small city, complete with neighborhoods, cliques, and police forces (not wholly unlike “The Genesis Tub” sketch from The Simpsons). Candice M. Giove, a reporter from the New York Post, decided to spend a night in Zuccotti Park and share her experience with the world. It was pretty much what one would expect — a wide assortment of strangers, including protesters, anarchists, and people looking at the protest like it was a mini-Woodstock. But Giove also discovered a disturbing trend of under-reported sexual assaults, as well a transgender group that was contemplating starting its own police force.

“I’m in a tent that keeps getting flooded, ransacked and robbed,” fumes a transgender group leader — a female who identifies as a male.

He said that the transgender group would create its own police force for transgender protesters and females, since an immense distrust loomed over the OWS-created authority.

Giove also write that two men who were allegedly raped didn’t report the assaults, somewhat inexplicably, “because [authorities] wanted to take them in an ambulance and . . . do a rape kit.” One of the women who pressed charges against her attacker told Giove that she has been involved in the counseling of new victims, “as new ones crop up every day.”

This morning, Giove went on FOX and Friends to discuss what she had seen. The sexual assault angle was buried in the middle and brought up relatively quickly, but Giove still painted a larger picture of what was going on in Zuccotti Park. “It’s really descended into madness and into chaos,” Giove said. “Some of the people that I met genuinely believed in this movement. But others that I met seem to have just joined the party. There’s rampant drug use.”

Enjoy the clip of Giove below, courtesy of FOX:

The cover promotes an editorial from the paper’s staff with the classy headline “Time to throw the bums out.” The evenhandedness follows:

“What began as a credible protest against bank bailouts, crony capitalism and the like has, in large measure, been hijacked by crazies and criminals.

Beyond that, too many protesters demonstrate by their actions a level of contempt for residents, businesses and workers in the area that long ago crossed the line.

No one should have to put up with the incessant noise, filth and downright dangerous conditions the protesters have foisted upon lower Manhattan.

The drumming and tambourines.

The yelling and screaming.

The public urination and defecation.

The drugs.

The lewdness.

The criminals and their crimes.

It’s all got to end.”

It continues to declare that “no one has greater respect for the First Amendment than this paper” and that “we don’t even quibble with some parts of the protesters’ message” which is nice of them.

Read the rest of the editorial here.

(cover photo via Newseum)

Get Out the Vote — a campaign run by Deputy Director of Public Engagement Buffy Wicks and aimed at increasing participation among young voters — is hoping to win back the affections of the millennial generation who helped elect Obama in 2008 but have since become discouraged by high unemployment rates. “The youth initiative is having trouble with big donors and youth votes,” says the Post‘s source. “They asked, ‘Can you tell us how we should be talking to them?’ ”

Accordingly, MTV Scratch would know exactly how to do so. Helmed by former MTVU boss Ross Martin and Anne Hubert, who served as a policy adviser in a past life, Scratch helps clients ”taps the power of MTV to connect with millennial in new ways.” According to their site, they’ve got poets and tech geeks, business nerds and surfers on hand to help their clients — everyone from Pepsi and xBox to Microsoft and GM — reconnect with (and then make business of) America’s younger, cooler consumers/voters.

What they don’t do, though, is politics. And so, several weeks after they’ve submitted their application, Get Out the Vote has been turned down. MTV has a long history of political involvement, running campaigns to get young voters registered and informed and hosting hard hitting town halls, and will likely find another way to be involved this cycle. Their involvement, however, has typically been non-partisan, and they have not, so far as I can tell, directly engaged with a particular campaign as this Post item suggests Get Out the Vote was hoping they would. Direct engagement between a Viacom property and a presidential re-election campaign sounds complicated for both parties.

Get Out The Vote denied approaching MTV, and MTV would not provide comment to the Post.

According to the 75 or so NYP word item, viewers were left steaming when the networks switched from the reading of victims’ names at Ground Zero to localized football coverage sometime around 1PM, about 20 minutes before the last of the 2,983 names was read. For many stations, live coverage of the memorial event began hours earlier, NY1 for one catching the day’s early light when they went live sometime around 5:30AM. And even after networks turned over their special coverage, notes the Post, “The remainder of the 9/11 services could still be seen on about a dozen other channels.”

Were you upset by yesterday’s coverage? The Post doesn’t cite specific cases of outrage, and so it’s hard to say exactly how angry viewers were. However, we would also guess that there were as many viewers left “infuriated” by coverage cut short as there were “infuriated” to be missing their first taste of Sunday football this year — something of a patriotic event itself. The whole thing asks questions as to how much coverage is enough coverage? And could networks even possibly do justice? There will always be someone wanting more, and someone else wanting more football.

Meanwhile, the LA Times is reporting that yesterday’s might have been the last ceremony to include a reading of the victims names. Mayor Mike Bloomberg first suggested the possibility last month on his radio show, saying that, “Some people have said, you know, we should go on forever. Some people have said change is good, and the subject’s come up a couple times, and I think we’ve said the foundation board will talk about this.” And of course, this sparked certain outrage, but there is no way to please everyone. “And you’re never going to have unanimity,” he said. “There will always be dissension.”

As the New York Post puts it, President Obama’s a “Ca-nucklehead” for “barnstorming the heartland to boost US jobs in a taxpayer-financed luxury bus the government had custom built — in Canada.” The Post‘s Geoff Earle reports the Secret Service commissioned the bus–and a second as well–from an American company, but the million-dollar buses have some Northern exposure:

The feds bought the two coaches for $2.2 million from Hemphill Brothers Coach, based in Tennessee. It installed custom interior upgrades into the Prevost shell, which accounted for about half the cost.

The contract lists the country of origin as Canada and place of manufacture as “outside U.S. – Trade Agreements,” a possible reference to the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The “Greyhound One” story did not escape notice from the crew at Fox and Friends, who took issue with the import. “Outsourced to another country. How embarrassing is that?”

Watch it here, from Fox News:

As Olshan writes, “the first five iPad cases, made from a navy blue Christian Dior sweater and a Bergdorf Goodman cardigan, “sold almost instantly, just by word of mouth,” John Vaccaro told The Post.”

“First I searched all the pockets to see if there were any $100 bills inside,” he said. “Then I found a designer who could make the cases from the cut-up clothing, which was tricky.”

McMillan received an eviction notice from his landlord claiming that he does not actually live in the apartment. As the Post explains, McMillan has said that he lives in Brooklyn publicly, in an apartment he does not pay rent for. McMillan assures the paper, however, that his name is on the lease for this apartment as well, and that the Brooklyn apartment is not a home, but the headquarters for the Rent is Too Damn High Party. McMillan is predictably feisty about this new development:

Jimmy McMillan says he pays $872.96 for a rent-controlled ground-floor apartment on St. Marks Place in the East Village — which he’s had since the late-1970s, when the rent was around $275. “I’ve been here since 1977, and they want more money!” McMillan says. “It’s about ‘My Rent is Too Damn Low.’” [...]

When he’s not busy planning his 2012 run for the White House, McMillan says he’s drawing on years of expertise to advise his lawyer on how to handle the eviction case. “I told him to file a counter-claim for $70,000,” McMillan said. [...]

“It’s a trick they all play. I’m not going to let them get away with it. You don’t tell an American how to live,” McMillan said.

No comment yet from the other 2012 Presidential candidates, and McMillan did not elaborate on how the added incentive to move into the White House (where the rent is so low, it’s nonexistent!) would affect his campaign– other than, of course, to give him something more to relate to with constituents.
[Photo via NYT]

Rich paid a visit to Joy Behar‘s HLN show to discuss his experiences further and to issue a warning that the “whole Murdoch culture” evidenced by the News of the World hacking scandal has spread to the United States:

Well, I think that we’re deluding ourselves if we think the whole sort of Murdoch culture has not spread to America. We’re reading all this sort of exotic stuff about having British police on the payroll. Bernie Kerik was on the Murdoch payroll. He had a huge advance from Harper Collins. And you know, the piece I’ve written in New York that’s out today, I talk about the bullying things that they do. It’s not just about politics; it’s not just about Fox being right-wing. It’s about them going after people who are personal enemies, Bill O’Reilly having producers stalk people on the street.

Rich believes the Murdoch empire allegedly lashes out in this because it is motivated by “power and money, punishing enemies that they don’t like, for reasons that could be personal or business, not just political.”

“It’s thuggery,” he concluded, agreeing with Behar’s assessment of Murdoch. “And I think this scandal is going to play out like Watergate for a couple of years. We’ll see where all of it lands in this country.”

Have a look at the segment, via HLN:

In 1976, at the dawn of his career, Rich found himself working for the Post when the paper was sold to an Australian business mogul who was, at the time, little-known in the States. The crux of Rich’s piece lies not in bolstering the “us versus them” narrative espoused by many in the “mainstream media,” but on zeroing in on how the Murdoch empire systematically abuses power in order to further an agenda, even if this abuse should happen to break the law:

This defense is a smoke screen. The real transgressions of the Murdoch empire are not its outré partisanship, its tabloid sleaze, its Washington lobbying, or even what liberals most love to hate, the bogus “fair and balanced” propaganda masquerading as journalism at Fox News. In fact, these misdemeanors are red herrings—distractions from the real News Corp. corruption that now threatens to bring down its management and radically reconfigure and reduce its international corporate footprint. The bigger story is this: An otherwise archetypal media colossus, with apolitical TV shows (American Idol), movies (Avatar), and cable channels (FX) like any other, is controlled by a family (and its tight coterie of made men and women, exemplified by the recently departed Rebekah Brooks) that countenances the intimidation and silencing of politicians, regulators, competitors, journalists, and even ordinary citizens to maximize its profits and power and to punish perceived corporate, political, and personal enemies. And, as we now know conclusively, some of this behavior has broken the law.

Frank highlights two specific instances of his personal brushes with those working under Murdoch, ranging from merely annoying to threatening:

The Post would not be my last brush with Murdoch’s minions. An emissary tried to rehire me for his other new purchase in New York—this magazine, which he wrested unscrupulously from its founder, Clay Felker, in 1977 and owned until 1991. (I declined.) Years later, when I became a Times columnist who frequently criticized various Murdoch organs, I was harassed by a “blind” fictional “Page Six” item that had me leaving my wife for a Broadway director. That was a mere warm-up for a full-frontal assault from Bill O’Reilly. After I came to the less-than-novel judgment that Mel Gibson and his 2004 movie The Passion of the Christ were anti-Semitic, O’Reilly, whose one novel had been optioned by Gibson for a film, attacked me on six different installments of his prime-time Fox News show, The O’Reilly Factor, sometimes displaying my photograph. I would have laughed off his blowhard provocations—“Hollywood and a lot of the secular press are controlled by the Jewish people” was a ­typical hypothesis—had they not incited the most explicitly violent and virulently anti-Semitic threats of my career. It was only one of two times in seventeen years as a Times columnist that I sought security advice. (The other was when I wrote critically about Scientology some years earlier.)

Throughout his article, Rich provides a veritable trove of examples demonstrating retaliation on the part of those employed by Murdoch’s various outlets and ventures, from the petty and juvenile to the heinous and, in some cases, potentially dangerous — and quite possibly illegal. As for News Corp’s hand in politics, Rich describes a relationship between the company and the Republican party that’s akin to a “business partnership,” Rich feels as incomparable to other political figures appearing on Fox news’ competitor, MSNBC.

Rich’s “exposé,” so to speak is worth being bookmarked today to read in full, but here’s his basic takeaway: That further and widespread investigative reporting is needed to make the public — and law enforcement — aware of the unethical journalistic practices and illegal activities allegedly promoted and carried out by Murdoch’s companies, both overseas and in the U.S.:

If Murdoch is to be undone in America, as in England, it won’t be politicians who take the lead. It will take aggressive journalism, law enforcement, and civil actions to force jettisoned News Corp. executives to sing.

h/t NY Mag

The Post’s source said “they need him down the road to score an interview with Casey when she’s less radioactive.” Although representatives for NBC, CBS and ABC have denied they will be “bidding” for an interview by offering Baez anything, presumably that sill leaves others networks as possibilities? And with the country’s interest in Anthony not likely to disappear anytime soon, even though Baez already made a statement, “I am not negotiating paid interviews with anyone,” the day will eventually come when Anthony breaks her silence and it seems likely Baez will be there to help arrange it.

Check out the full story at the New York Post.

The news recap began with Murdoch’s initial statement, one he made after interrupting his son, James, that today was “the most humble day of my life.” “Not so humble you couldn’t wait for your turn to talk!” Stewart cracked. Then he went to the highlight of the hearings– “some idiot tried to pie Murdoch,” but not before his wife Wendi’s “lightning reflex and devastating, Chuck Norris-esque handspeed” saved him.

The Stewart turned to the coverage on Fox News, finding several instances of Fox News personalities downplaying the scandal and complaining that other entities were “piling on.” Stewart joked that he expected them to say it was “the biggest case of piling on since Common read a poem at the White House,” then mocked Cal Thomas for comparing it to rugby: “if you’re going to kiss Rupert Murdoch’s ass with a reference, at least call it Aussie Rules Football.”

Speaking of piling on, Stewart went a bit back in time to see how Fox News handled a media scandal involving another media empire: NPR. That group, it turns out, Fox described as “an agent of Jihadist inquisition,” among many other things– “a reasonably proportioned response,” Stewart noted sarcastically, as opposed to the “overreaction” to the Murdoch case, an “epic” corruption story that is, he joked, “really wasting everyone’s time.” To conclude, Stewart gave us a glimpse of what the Murdoch scandal would look like if it were happening to anyone else– through the words of the nation’s greatest punsters, the New York Post.

The segment via Comedy Central below:

Part 2

Kurtz welcomed to his panel today former Carter speechwriter James Fallows and Washington Post blogger Eric Wemple, both who expressed little sympathy for News Corporation and its entanglement in the scandal. Kurtz opened the chat proposing that, as much as many criticize Fox News for not devoting as much coverage as other networks to the matter, a risk existed, perhaps, that the network would be accused of “putting out some kind of sanitized version” of the story. Fallows argued that, yes, expecting them to be at the forefront of coverage on their sister organization’s corruption was unwieldy, but “it’s realistic to expect them to devote some coverage.” Wemple agreed: “there is a difference between responsibility and expecting them to be at the forefront.” Wemple also argued that they had to cover it because it was a juicy story, and “if they fully ignore it, they’ll push people elsewhere.”

As a media reporter, Kurtz admitted that the story was somewhat personal to him. “When CNN has controversy, we always do it,” he noted, and he expected the same of his analogs at Fox News. Otherwise, he argued, the network sends the message that “we’re only aggressive when someone else is in trouble.” He also called the Fox News Watch commercial segment on the topic, where the panel decided not to talk about it at all, “an embarrassment” but considered the possibility, as Cal Thomas argued the week after that segment, that those who are competitors are covering the story with more zeal because of their interests in it.

To that claim, Wemple argued that it was News Corp who were playing up the story by virtue of so many people in their organization being involved in it and stepping down, but refrained from attacking the American side of the organization too much because journalistic standards in America are “vastly superior” to those of Britain (with the exception of the New York Post). Fallows agreed in part: “the range from high to low [standards] is broader than in the United States.”

The segment via CNN below:

While the speculation surrounding his potential bid was fueled both by Strauss-Kahn’s past before the charges were filed and a New York Post report Sunday that his strategic guru, Stephane Fouks, hopped a jetliner specifically to provide advice to Strauss-Kahn, that campaign appears not to be happening anytime in the near future. A source close to the former IMF chief tells Mediaite, “DSK is telling friends that media speculation that he might run is simply absurd. Of course he is pleased that despite the recent headlines, the media is suddenly declaring him a viable candidate, but he knows in the real world that is just not the case.”

Mediaite is told that while PR man Fouks is in town and did meet with his friend Strauss-Kahn, he was long scheduled to be in New York to confer with colleagues from his firm Euro RSCG and an investment bank about ongoing public relations work. So while the Post story began with “let the spin begin,” it seems that spin won’t have anything to do with Strauss-Kahn running for President, nor did it appear to be remotely impromptu.

We don’t pretend to know enough about French politics to predict whether Nicolas Sarkozy has the political punch to win another term, but even Strauss-Kahn’s closest associates recognize he still has a long way to go legally, personally and politically before he can even begin to consider running for anything. That will be a bridge he will have to cross when he gets to it, as his immediate goals are far more parochial, getting New York prosecutors to drop the charges against him.

The “gross” tag did not appear in the Post‘s article, but was affixed to the tweet leading to a story about how the legal team was “partying” at the restaurant they had made their usual throughout the trial while footage of the trial played behind them. The comments from users on the story seemed to echo that sentiment:

“Celebrating? What an unconscionable bunch of douche bags…”

“The devil is dancing in the pale moon light.”

“I was appalled by what I saw. The attorney, can’t remember her name, but the blond/reddish haired one sitting with Casey thru the trial had the nerve to be dancing in the bar… really, really… there is a dead child in a swamp and you dance because the killer tot mom got off. REALLY?”

“That’s f*cking horrendous. No Justice for the baby. America has let her down.”

That post goes on to link to a local Orlando report showing members of the legal team– both prominent and not– dining and celebrating. That video is below:

The outrage triggered by any images of individuals being happy about any part of this case is natural– after all, a toddler is dead, and someone got away with killing her. That doesn’t necessarily make the defense team diabolical for celebrating the greatest success of their legal careers. The attack from the Post‘s Twitter and the numerous “dancing on Caylee’s grave” comments waiting to happen depend upon the average consumer of Casey Anthony news to take away only the most superficial understanding of what a legal team constitutes.

Given the press coverage he was getting for his closing arguments, there’s an argument for Jose Baez being the David Vitter of his field– he seems to do everything wrong and still keeps winning. And the best most incompetent lawyer in America’s sidekick, Cheney Mason, who will forever be remembered as the guy who gave the media the middle finger, doesn’t do much to help the legal team’s PR either. But forgotten before the cameras and in the pages of our papers are a number of decent, hard-working associates who spent countless sleepless nights working on excruciatingly detailed legal briefs while their bosses hogged the limelight.

Anyone who has written a legal brief– or even a shorter legal memo– can tell you it ranks somewhere between mononucleosis and an eight-hour Keith Olbermann “Special Comment” on the Scale of Pleasant Experiences. It’s the hardest of hard labor, and given the revulsion with which most Americans view lawyers, among the most unsung. What’s more, associates may choose their firms, but not their cases– they toil on improving whatever life walks into their boss’ office at any cost. If Baez’s words after the verdict– “I saved a life today”– are taken at face value, the least the little people at his office deserve is a nice dinner at a location which they appeared to have made a second home out of. They probably did far more for Casey Anthony– and for the American justice system– than the people that get to speak at press conferences for them. And think what you will of the verdict, there’s nothing “gross” about a long day in the office.

The article in question, published on July 2nd, ran under the title “Maid cleaning up as ‘hooker,’” and claims that the maid routinely made extra money by servicing male hotel guests:

Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s accuser wasn’t just a girl working at a hotel — she was a working girl.

The Sofitel housekeeper who claims the former IMF boss sexually assaulted her in his room was doing double duty as a prostitute, collecting cash on the side from male guests, The Post has learned.

An anonymous source cited in the article said the woman was bringing in “extraordinary tips” that were not merely obtained by “bringing extra f–king towels.”

The woman’s suit contends that this information is false and was published by the Post in “an apparent desperate attempt to bolster its rapidly plunging sales.”

h/t Reuters

The New York Post quotes an unnamed “top investigator” involved in the sex prosecution of former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, saying prosecutors will drop the charges after the case has collapsed amid questions about DSK’s accuser. “We all know this case is not sustainable,” the source told The Post‘s Laura Italiano, who says her source described the dismissal of charges as “a certainty.”

According to the Post‘s source, recent reports about the hotel maid who has claimed sexual assault may forever keep investigators from knowing the truth:

“She is not to be believed in anything that comes out of her mouth — which is a shame, because now we may never know what happened in that hotel room,” said the source, who is at the center of the investigation and would speak only on the condition of anonymity.

“Did [Strauss-Kahn] use force? Was there actually a crime? I don’t think we’ll ever know.”

Before this year, the Nathan’s contest was open to any and all contenders, which the women who sat with Olshan– the greats of competitive eating, including Juliet Lee, LaRelle Marie Mele, and “Black Widow” Sonya Thomas– argued was unfair to their slight frames. Not only to spectators now get two contests, but the women don’t have to compete with the larger frames and more flexible jaws of their male counterparts. Lee told Olshan she was “scared” of eating with the same speed as the incumbent champion Joey Chestnut, who can hulk down entire hot dogs with little to no chewing.

Then there’s this delightful exchange among the women, who find dining at non-buffet restaurants quaint:

In preparation for the internationally televised pigout, The Post took four of the top female competitors to high tea at the Plaza. It wasn’t quite their scene.

“I could eat all of this in two minutes,” Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas, said surveying the platters of scones, cucumber sandwiches, and pastries. “Maybe one minute.”

“Yeah, I much prefer buffets to regular restaurants,” LaRelle Marie Mele, 47, who’ll be at the table for the first time Monday. “I never get full at a sit-down place.”

“Me, too,” agreed veteran Juliet Lee, 45, who holds the world record for cranberry-sauce eating. “Normally, I go to Chinese buffets.”

The ladies of competitive eating will be battling for one of the most prestigious prizes in the sport on Monday in true Fourth of July tradition, along with their male counterparts. Full list of contestants (and odds) here.

Disgraced former New York congressman Anthony Weiner‘s not exactly gone into hiding. Instead of focusing on repairing his marriage, the New York Post‘s Sally Goldenberg and Josh Margolin report Weiner’s busy working his political connections in an attempt to help choose his own successor. “Weiner, who became a national dirty joke after he was caught sexting young women, now wants to be a kingmaker,” they write in today’s Post.

Unless there’s a primary, Queens Democratic and Republican leaders will likely choose candidates for a special election to replace Weiner–and the Post cites “insiders” who say the ex-congressman is attempting to have a key role in that process:

His ego has no bounds.

In a dazzling display of arrogance, disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner is trying to insert himself back into politics — calling power brokers and would-be candidates for his old seat, hoping they’ll let him play a role in choosing his own successor, The Post has learned.

Weiner, who became a national dirty joke after he was caught sexting young women, now wants to be a kingmaker.

One Democratic insider confirmed that Weiner has spoken to the Queens party chairman, Rep. Joe Crowley, about whom the Dems should pick.

One source quoted by the Post defended Weiner’s involvement, saying “I think it’s a very natural thing for him to do. This is something he cares about.”

How did the publisher of a family-owned newspaper in Adelaide, Australia rise to become one of the most powerful media tycoons on Earth–controlling a fortune worth more than 30 billion dollars? The rise of News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch is probed in a Bloomberg TV special airing Tuesday night. The Murdoch special, part of the Game Changers series, includes interviews with people who’ve worked with Murdoch at Fox, the New York Post and in the U.K., and by journalists who’ve studied him. “Rupert Murdoch is what God meant when he created a media executive,” says Bloomberg Businessweek‘s Ron Grover.

Murdoch’s made a name for himself as someone who can create wealth, power–and controversy. Bloomberg talks to Peter Chernin, former president and COO of News Corp., and Michael Wolff, who wrote the biography “The Man Who Owns the News.” The special airs on Bloomberg TV Tuesday night at 9 p.m. ET.

Watch a preview here, from Bloomberg TV:

In tabloid newspapers, they call those big, huge headlines “the wood,” but we’ll avoid that for right now. The New York Post was oddly subdued yet perfectly clever in today’s front page headline on the resignation of Rep. Anthony Weiner: WEINER’S RISE AND FALL. The sub-headline, in case you need more puns: “sexting ‘member’ quits Congress.” And there you have it.

The rival New York Daily News underperformed with STICK A FORK IN WEINER. We also like the Spanish-language New York tab, El Diario, which went with POR CULPA DE UN PAJARITO, or BECAUSE OF A BIRD.

Here your Post winner, in all its ready-for-framing glory, from the New York Post:

In the face of relentless reports–many of them from News Corp. properties like the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal–insisting CNN’s John King is a “dead man walking” who’s only keeping a seat warm until new hire Erin Burnett can swoop in and take his timeslot, CNN’s recently-named Washington bureau chief has reportedly told staff “senior management is behind JK USA,” according to a post on FishbowlDC. The comment, Politico reports, came in a staff meeting and was interpreted as a forceful response to the most recent King-Is-Out story, published May 26 in the Post.

Specifically addressing thePost‘s series of stories, Feist said “The rumors are false and have always been false,” he added. Feist’s remarks follow a statement released to Mediaite recently putting King’s future in plain terms:

“(We have) no plans to make changes to John King, USA—the audience is up 68 percent for the month vs. a year ago and we look forward to its continued progress as the program takes on an important role in our 2012 campaign coverage.”

What remains unclear is where CNN will find an hour to give Burnett, whose new show begins pre-production soon.

The so-called “Weinergate” scandal has been the gift that keeps on giving, as far as many media outlets have been concerned, and it’s interesting to see how each has managed to put its own spin on the story.

Let’s take a look at how they (and, yes, we) managed it, shall we?

New York Post

This kind story was, basically, tailor-made for New York’s most notorious rag. If The New York Times is the (wonkily left-leaning) crown jewel in this city’s media crown, then the New York Post is its jester’s hat. Entertaining, shocking, unabashedly vulgar and, despite it all, begrudgingly beloved. I mean, come on! The puns, people! His name is Weiner:

“Disgusted Democrats letting Weiner shrivel”

“Weiner likely to endure a rough sex probe”

“NYers: You’ll never be Mayor ‘Crotch’”

New York Times

The NYT has approached the Weiner scandal with its typical mix of straightforward reporting and op-ed pieces, all with the sort of florid prose we’ve come to expect from the Lady Most Gray:

Those elders must be hoping to heaven that Mr. Weiner departs before the machinery of investigation is gassed up and rumbles toward the Internet Protocol addresses where he composed his epistles.

They even had a characteristically classy take on the fact that the man’s name is, you know. “Penis:”

We Weiners, though, are eminently adaptable. It’s a survival thing. At some point, my father, Seymour, changed the pronunciation of our family name from WEEN-er to WHINE-er because, really, who wants to be known as Seymour WEEN-er? It was a Faustian bargain, to be sure, but a wise one. At least that’s what I thought until “Saturday Night Live” aired a popular skit about a couple named Doug and Wendy WHINE-er. They would speak, of course, in grating, whining voices that my classmates parroted whenever they pronounced my last name, which was often. Those were difficult years.

It’s hard, sometimes, being a Weiner.

>>> NEXT PAGE: Is Mediaite obsessed with all things cockamamy?

In the immediately aftermath of Rep. Anthony Weiner‘s surreal news conference in New York Monday, thoughts drifted to New York’s legendary tabloids, and how the story would play out on Tuesday’s front pages of the New York Post and the New York Daily News. We’ve seen the covers, and both papers wisely moved past “weiner” jokes, but only one produced wood worthy of induction into the Hall of Fame. The Post played it oddly safe with NAKED TRUTH. Meh.

But the Daily News found a perfectly New York way of boiling down the content of Weiner’s epic news conference–at least in the minds of New Yorkers: YEAH, I’M A SCHMUCK.

Here are the covers:

For the most part, “21 Questions” reads like a quirky personality profile, or the transcript of an awkward first date. Gutfeld discusses some of his superlatives (Mortal enemy? Cathagorithipicus. Favorite medication? Shame.) and interesting New York experiences– his first job, apparently, was a “bachelorette party,” or so he was told. As for his current job, he’d rather keep it, and so his favorite New York paper is the New York Post (owned by “RICH DUDE WHO CAN FIRE ME, INC.”). And then there’s this gem:

What do you think of Donald Trump?
You know when your mom leaves a TV on in the other room, and it’s on all day, and you can hear it throughout the house? That’s what I think of when I think of Donald Trump. It’s why I moved out last month.

Shockingly accurate!

The whole interview is worth the breezy read, just to imagine the expressions the interview must have had throughout the discussion. And for those who somehow can’t afford staying up until 3 AM to catch him, you can find some of his best Red Eye moments here.

Is John King a “dead man walking” at CNN? The New York Post seems to think so. In a series of short blurbs over the last few months–the most recent just today–the News Corp.-owned paper has at times hinted, and at other times flat-out reported that King was losing his signature 7 p.m. show. “We hear that CNN development execs are creating a daily news show for her to air from New York at 7 p.m., a switch from business to breaking news,” reads the PAGE SIX story. “Burnett’s show launches in June and will replace John King USA.”

Today’s story follows a similarly grim report on King’s future in the Post back in March, which declared “John King is the next head likely to roll at CNN,” and suggested a pilot was in the works with Soledad O’Brien as a replacement. As we reported then, the Post‘s story came within a day of a similar report in Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal that tied rumors of King’s demise to CNN’s “interest” in then-CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric.

In each story, the motive for ditching King is “low ratings.” But even a quick look at ratings this year for John King, USA show the show growing–and competing strongly against the competition. For the month, the quarter, and the year to date, JK USA‘s beating MSBNC’s Chris Matthews. On May 5th, King not only beat Matthews, but his ratings (433,000 viewers 25-54) were impressive even compared to Fox News’ Shepard Smith (530,000). King also outperformed CNN’s In the Arena and Piers Morgan Tonight. Last Friday, King again beat Matthews, and had the second-highest-rated hour on CNN behind Anderson Cooper.

Clearly CNN has high-profile plans for Erin Burnett, and that means building a show around her. CNN says development on the yet-to-be-named program will begin “in a few weeks.” But with a major election season looming, and ratings holding, King’s not necessarily the obvious choice to be shifted to make room for Burnett. A CNN rep says the network has “no plans to make changes to John King, USA—the audience is up 68 percent for the month vs. a year ago and we look forward to its continued progress as the program takes on an important role in our 2012 campaign coverage.”

The New York Post‘s Josh Margolin reports this morning that President Obama‘s re-election campaign is taking no chances with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, with “operatives” collecting “opposition research” just in case Christie should change his mind and enter the 2012 race. “The operatives have chosen not to dispatch their own people to New Jersey, but instead are talking to people there and in New York who know Christie from his time in the governor’s office, as a gubernatorial candidate and as US attorney.”

Obama campaign officials did not comment for the Post‘s story, but Christie’s spokesman did:

Christie spokesman Mike DuHaime said, “This is just wishful thinking . . . He is not running, and he is not cracking the door open even a little bit.”

But, DuHaime said, the efforts of the Obama camp are flattering.

He said it’s “an acknowledgment that Christie is a bold leader successfully taking on big challenges as governor. A leader who cuts spending and takes on the special interests tends to earn notice at the highest levels.”

Yes, the cover above is real, and it is spectacular: “Osama bin Wankin’!” it loudly proclaims, with the subheader “It’s Whora Bora– Porn Found In Laden’s Foxhole.” The image is a screencap from the famous video of bin Laden watching himself, with the title “Debbie Does Abbottabad” doctored in. Hundreds of years from now, archeologists will find this cover and middle school boys the world over will dream of having lived in the same civilization as the people who put it together.

While the cover in itself is sublime, the accompanying article has some amazing alliteration in it, too: “It turns out that terror titan Osama bin Laden had a stash of smut to liven up his lair,” write Chuck Bennett and Philip Messing. It goes on in a similar vein. If the National Enquirer was demanding a Pulitzer for their Edwards saga coverage, the Post must be knocking their doors down.

[h/t]

In a post titled just that – solely and simply “Hobbling Gasbag” – The New York Post offers a rather biting look at Olbermann’s supposed struggle to gather a staff together for his upcoming show on Current TV:

Gasbag Keith Olbermann can’t seem to wrangle staff for his Current TV show, “Countdown.” Still in need of an executive producer and other staff, famously difficult Olbermann has crawled back to his contacts at MSNBC, many of whom he offended while there, to beg for staff. “Everyone is laughing,” said a source. “They would never leave the network to work for him.” A witness recently saw him hobbling around the Upper East Side with a stick in his hand. Olbermann is recovering from a foot injury.

For the record, Olbermann says he is recovering nicely:

h/t NYP

According to the Post‘s Chuck Bennett and Josh Margolin, the Church didn’t have a problem with McGreevey being a gay American, but being a party to a bitter and nasty divorce:

Church leaders, who have long embraced gay parishioners and clergy, were bothered by McGreevey’s bitter divorce, sources told The Post.

“It was not being gay but for being a jackass — [McGreevey] didn’t come out of the whole divorce looking good,” said a source with the Episcopal Diocese of Newark.

According to the Post, McGreevey refused to comment, citing confidentiality of the priesthood process. The former governor converted from Catholicism after leaving politics and earned a master’s degree in divinity. It’s not uncommon for first-time bids for priesthood to fail, with aspirants being told they need to focus their efforts on certain areas.