Today's New York Post

Today's New York Post

Rupert Murdoch strikes again.

New York Post Suggests Plastic Surgery And Botox For Mayoral Candidates

The always classy New York Post consulted a "respected" plastic surgeon for suggestions on making mayoral candidates appear "stronger, happier and more likeable."  More "fixed faces" are at the link.

Rupert Murdoch Defends New York Post's Lies About Boston Bombings

RELATED: On Friday a faked letter of apology from the Post was placed in newsstand issues across the city.  The letter reads in part:

This week, the New York Post acted recklessly and with flagrant disregard for the principles of good journalism. I'd like to take this opportunity to sincerely apologize to our readers, to the people of Boston, and to the three men who were mistakenly investigated as suspects.

Read the full faked letter here.

Gawker Vs New York Post

Note the tiny question mark. Details.

Bombing Witchhunts Continue

Days after the New York Post wrongly claimed that 12 people had been killed in Boston's bombing, their front page today wrongly claims that the two men pictured are being sought by the FBI.   Deadspin rips the Post to shreds:

On Tuesday, CNN (among others) reported that a suspect had been arrested, before walking that all the way back. Today, the Post wrests back the "what the fuck are you doing?" crown by putting two "potential suspects" on the cover of the newspaper. They are most assuredly innocent. The pair show up in multiple photos of the finish line. They carry large bags. They are dark-skinned. This was enough for internet sleuths to peg them as suspicious. And that was apparently enough for the Post to run with its front-page story today, claiming investigators are circulating photos of the two.

But maybe there was a reason for them to be at the marathon, wearing track jackets and carrying bags: they're runners. The kid in the blue jacket is a middle-distance runner at Revere High School. Last week he ran the two-mile in 11:20. Yesterday he caught wind that his name and social media profiles were being circulated online, and he did what any teenager would do: He panicked. He made his Facebook timeline private, and in one message now no longer visible, he announced he was going to clear his name.

RELATED: Yesterday's New York Post front page featured a image that had been photoshopped to make it appear that the victim did not have a grievous leg injury. Other outlets that ran the same photo blurred the injury or placed a black bar over it.

Today From Rupert Murdoch

Today's New York Post

Details.

On The Ethics Of Journalism

Yesterday the New York Post published a terrifying full-page front cover photo of a man who had just been pushed onto the subway tracks by an apparently mentally ill person. In the photo, the downtown-bound Q train is about twenty feet away from the victim, who was killed instantly a moment later. The Post has since come under widespread criticism for publishing the photo.

Forbes spoke to John Long of the National Press Photographers Association:

The question of whether the New York Post was right to publish Abbasi’s photo is, says Long, “another issue altogether.” Newspapers have an obligation to publish images, even horrifying ones, that might affect public debate over important issues. He cites photos of killed U.S. soldiers or drowned bodies in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. “Those pictures ran because we as a society could learn from them and make decisions for society,” he says. A photo of a man about to be hit by a subway wouldn’t seem to rise to that level, he says. “If I was the night editor, I don’t think I’d run it.” However, he adds, “it’s a contract between a paper and its readers, and it’s different from paper to paper. The New York Post is not known for its subtlety in taste decisions.”

The New York Times today republished the photo, telling Gothamist afterwards that it would have been a disservice to their readers to question the ethics of the Post without providing the image itself.  Gothamist asks: "Is it right to use 'asking a question' about whether a news outlet should publish a controversial photograph as an opportunity to re-run that very picture (and reap its inevitable page views)? Or is this beneath the level of moral rectitude we expect Times' bloggers to embody?"

Your opinions, please.

News Corp Endorses Romney

Shocking, I know.

Today's New York Post

Thank You, Steve

I decided to read the wingut New York Post over breakfast this morning, something I very rarely do, because I was curious to see teabagger teeth-gnashing over Sarah Palin's announcement. What I found at the front of the paper was four full pages of tributes to Steve Jobs. (Plus the cover.) And way way way back in the lower right corner of page 16? One sentence about Sarah Palin. Even in death, Steve Jobs does the world good.

HIV Hysteria From The NY Post

The reliably yellow journalists at the New York Post have outraged AIDS activists with a front-page claim that the hotel maid at the center of an rape scandal lives in subsidized public housing for HIV patients. The Post darkly warns that alleged rapist and International Monetary Fund head Dominque Strauss-Kahn now "has more to worry about" than a lengthy prison sentence. Housing Works weighs in angrily:

“Once again the New York Post proves that they are happy to trample on human dignity to sell newspapers. There is no public interest in knowing this woman’s HIV status—yet the woman herself could suffer greatly from the revelation,” said Housing Works President and CEO Charles King. “The Post’s story is an attack on women and all people with HIV.” The Post story intensifies the stigma surrounding AIDS by implying that HIV is an inherently horrifying disease.

The woman's lawyer this morning denied the Post's claim, saying she "absolutely" does not live in housing for people with HIV. But the story has already been picked up in France, where a new poll revealed that almost half of the nation believes the entire case was a set-up meant to derail the political ambitions of Strauss-Kahn, who was widely pegged to become the next president.

Mummy Dearest

Buzzfeed has posted a fantastic collection of this morning's headlines about Egypt. As always, the New York Post wins.

Teabagger Carl Paladino To New York Post Reporter: I'll Take You OUT Buddy!

Teabagger loon Carl Paladino got into a heated shouting match with a New York Post reporter yesterday after the reporter demanded to see evidence that Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has been cheating on his wife, as Paladino has begun to claim. Paladino, as we know, has a ten year-old daughter from his own adulterous affair with an employee.

After Dicker asked Paladino what evidence he had to make accusations to Maghabe at Politico that Democratic gubernatorial frontrunner Andrew Cuomo had cheated on his ex -wife, Blain reports, Paladino turned the tables, assailing Dicker over the Post's coverage of the daughter he fathered a decade ago with a woman other than his wife. "I want to know why you sent your goons after my daughter, Fred," Paladino demanded. "You send another goon to my daughter's house and I'll take you out, buddy!" Paladino also raised the issue of Cuomo's former marriage in a Newsday report this morning, saying he wanted the media to "go after Cuomo and his paramours" but, again, offering no evidence of what he was talking about. Paladino's campaign manager, Michael Caputo, separated the two men and sent his candidate into the men's room to calm down. Then, Caputo accused Dicker of working for Cuomo and doing his dirty work, so to speak. At one point, Blain says, Paladino cursed Dicker, saying, "F--- him!"

Here's a clip of the altercation. New York, baby.

Headline Of The Week

NEW YORK: Students Perform La Cage Aux Folles At Special Needs School

A NYC private school for special needs kids has put on a student production of La Cage Aux Folles. While the show itself is fairly G-rated, the idea of ten year-olds performing in drag has gotten the New York Post's vile Andrea Peyser screaming.

"Dad, do I have to wear a dress to school?" No joke. These conversations went on in kitchens and living rooms around the city, as a top school that educates learning-disabled and autistic children staged a student production of "La Cage aux Folles" -- a cross-dressing, limp-wristed, gay comic romp whose main characters are a pair of "married" men. As the show packs in adult audiences on Broadway with campy star Kelsey Grammer and a cast of drag queens, the kiddie version of "La Cage" was cooked up by the executive director of Child School, a private institution on Roosevelt Island that takes on youngsters from kindergarten through middle school. Some 50 children as young as 10 were cast to play screaming queens, a school assistant told me.

The father, whose boy is autistic, was horrified that his vulnerable child might be made into a spectacle. "I'm outraged!" said the dad, who did not want to be identified for fear his kid would be hurt. "They're advocating for the gay lifestyle, giving them ideas. Saying, 'It's OK. If you're having these feelings, experiment with it.'" Then came the defense, necessary in this climate. "Look, I'm not a homophobe," the father said. But as a Catholic, "I'm teaching him that straight couples screwing around is a sin. If they want to teach tolerance, do 'West Side Story.'" Better yet, "teach them reading and writing."

The second of the school's two performances of La Cage was last night. But I'll bet we haven't heard the end of this.

Rupert Murdoch Apologizes

After a week of protests and demonstrations, New York Post owner Rupert Murdoch has issued an apology for last week's racist Obama=monkey cartoon.

As the Chairman of the New York Post, I am ultimately responsible for what is printed in its pages. The buck stops with me. Last week, we made a mistake. We ran a cartoon that offended many people. Today I want to personally apologize to any reader who felt offended, and even insulted. Over the past couple of days, I have spoken to a number of people and I now better understand the hurt this cartoon has caused. At the same time, I have had conversations with Post editors about the situation and I can assure you - without a doubt - that the only intent of that cartoon was to mock a badly written piece of legislation. It was not meant to be racist, but unfortunately, it was interpreted by many as such. We all hold the readers of the New York Post in high regard and I promise you that we will seek to be more attuned to the sensitivities of our community.

Activists are continuing to call for cartoonist Sean Delonas to be fired.

Post Issues Non-Apologetic Apology

The New York Post has issued a classic "fuck you" apology for Wednesday's Obama=monkey cartoon.

Wednesday's Page Six cartoon - caricaturing Monday's police shooting of a chimpanzee in Connecticut - has created considerable controversy. It shows two police officers standing over the chimp's body: "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill," one officer says. It was meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill. Period. But it has been taken as something else - as a depiction of President Obama, as a thinly veiled expression of racism. This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologize. However, there are some in the media and in public life who have had differences with The Post in the past - and they see the incident as an opportunity for payback. To them, no apology is due. Sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon - even as the opportunists seek to make it something else.

Yesterday about 200 protesters demonstrated in front of the Post's offices at the News Corp headquarters on Sixth Avenue.

GLAAD's Worst Anti-Gay Voices Of 2008

I don't know yet if this list is in reaction to the list issued by the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission. Links go to more detailed GLAAD pages on each item. Note that some names have multiple links. In alphabetical order, here are the biggest haters according to GLAAD.

Bill O'Reilly (Host, The O'Reilly Factor, FOX News Channel)

Bill O'Reilly, who frequently appears on GLAAD's monthly "Best and Worst of National News," led a one-sided and inaccurate discussion of marriage equality on May 15 with Fox News Channel's Megyn Kelly, who compared marriage for same-sex couples with polygamy and incest. Earlier this year, O'Reilly said Americans don't want to see "homosexual behavior legitimized" in reference to Whoopi Goldberg briefly kissing Katy Perry on The View on July 31, and he criticized Heinz for a TV commercial that included a kiss between two men on June 20. Most recently on December 10, he referred to the staff of the Los Angeles Times as "pinheads" for endorsing the Day Without a Gay protest against Proposition 8.

California's Yes on Proposition 8 Campaign

The Yes on Proposition 8 campaign filled the airwaves with deliberately misleading commercials about Proposition 8, which eliminated the right to marry for loving and committed same-sex couples in California. The ads relied on scare tactics and spread inflammatory lies, including that the defeat of Proposition 8 would mean changes in schools and churches. These ads used misinformation to shape public opinion and helped sway voters to pass the discriminatory ban, in spite of various legal experts and mainstream media outlets uniformly denouncing the dishonest approach.

Greg Gutfeld (Host, Red Eye, FOX News Channel)

FOX News Channel's late-night show Red Eye continued to feature sophomoric jabs at LGBT people. On May 20, host Greg Gutfeld and his guests grossly misrepresented serious medical concerns faced by transgender youth and laughed as one of his guests referred to transition as "turning a hole into a pole." Then Gutfeld criticized Ellen DeGeneres for announcing her upcoming wedding, saying Ellen should "shut the hell up about it." In his September 17 blog, Gutfeld ranted about diplomats saying, "These bloated bureaucrats would learn more in two days ducking for cover in Liberia, than two weeks trying to pick up transvestite hookers in Times Square."

James Dobson (Founder, Focus on the Family)

A national media platform gave airtime to an anti-gay activist when James Dobson, founder of anti-gay organization Focus on the Family, appeared on an episode of CNN Headline News and made false claims about Proposition 8, including that if the proposition failed, there would be a "spate of lawsuit against churches" and "all textbooks would have to be republished" and "everything in schools will change." The Museum of Broadcast Communications chose to honor Dobson by inducting Focus on the Family into the Radio Hall of Fame, despite his history of anti-gay rhetoric and lies. GLAAD produced a viral video to raise awareness of Dobson's attacks on the LGBT community and released a Call to Action against the Museum for honoring Dobson's lies and distortions aimed to hurt and marginalize LGBT people.

Jim Quinn (Host, The War Room With Quinn & Rose, Clear Channel)

During the November 6 broadcast of the nationally syndicated radio program The War Room with Quinn & Rose, co-host Jim Quinn made highly offensive and ignorant statements including "[G]ay marriage doesn't produce anything that the state has an interest in. Gay sex produces AIDS, which the state doesn't have – or should have an interest in. They should charge homosexuals more for their health insurance than they charge the rest of us." Despite numerous complaints from GLAAD's Call to Action, Clear Channel refused to issue an apology and has not disciplined Quinn for his disgusting and unacceptable remarks.

John Gibson (Host, The John Gibson Show, FOX News Radio)

Fox News Radio Host John Gibson was responsible for making made several tasteless, juvenile anti-gay jokes on his program. GLAAD first issued a Call to Action after he mocked the passing of actor Heath Ledger by making anti-gay jokes about his role in Brokeback Mountain on Fox News Radio's The John Gibson Show. As a result of the response by GLAAD's members, Gibson apologized for these remarks, but continued using anti-gay jokes on May 2. During a clip of MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, who is openly gay, Gibson cut to an audio clip of someone saying, "Oh, lesbians! Yummy!"

Laura Ingraham (Host, The Laura Ingraham Show)

Transgender people were repeatedly used as punching bags by Fox News Channel and guest Laura Ingraham, even as violence and harassment against transgender people continued with disturbing frequency throughout 2008. While guest hosting Fox News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor on February 8, Ingraham interrupted a guest by saying that a transgender conference was "killing the culture." Earlier this year on The O'Reilly Factor, she questioned how parents of a transgender youth "aren't embarrassed" by their child, and most recently, on December 11, she alluded that being gay is a "bad choice" when discussing a Newsweek feature on marriage for same-sex couples.

New York Post

In 2008, the New York Post continued its long history of sensationalistic treatment of LGBT people and issues with two highly problematic headlines. On January 25, the tabloid printed the headline "Evil Lesbian Mom Left Toddler to Die Slow Death: DA," despite the fact that such a gratuitous description would not have been used were the subject straight. Additionally, on February 7, the Post dehumanized the transgender community by publishing the egregious headline "Axis of She-Vil" and sub-headline, "Death to Gays But Free Ops For Irani Trannies."

Pastor Rick Warren

Rick Warren has a history of using the media as a platform to spread divisive anti-gay rhetoric. Warren spread inaccuracies about Proposition 8, saying that it would "prevent him from getting up on the pulpit and speaking out against same-sex marriage" on Dateline. He also participated in a video interview with The Wall Street Journal on December 18 where he said that marriage for gay and lesbian couples was the equivalent of "having a brother and sister be together," "an older guy marrying a child" and "one guy having multiple wives." After President-elect Obama chose Warren to lead the invocation at the Presidential inauguration, GLAAD distributed instances of Warren's anti-gay defamation on glaadBLOG as a resource for journalists and bloggers.

Representative Sally Kern (R-OK)

Oklahoma Representative Sally Kern made headlines in March after telling a group of supporters that "the homosexual agenda is destroying our nation" in a gathering of Republicans outside the Capitol. She went on to say that the gay community is "the death knell in this country" and "the biggest threat that our nation has, even more so than terrorism." GLAAD provided media training and media outreach support to local Oklahoma groups to ensure that LGBT advocates were included in local media coverage and balanced the harmful effects of such hateful remarks from an elected official.

Sean Delonas (Cartoonist, New York Post)

The New York Post and cartoonist Sean Delonas, who has been the subject of three GLAAD Calls to Action, continued juvenile treatments of LGBT issues in an editorial cartoon that ran after openly gay actor George Takei announced his upcoming marriage to his partner in California. Delonas drew crew members from Star Trek, which Takei appeared on as Sulu, looking on in disbelief as Takei exchanged nuptials with a man. One character was drawn saying "Totally Illogical, Captain." GLAAD placed a Call to Action to demand that the New York Post stop printing such immature items on their editorial pages.