talk of the town

The New Yorker has a witty piece on the tabloid wars, writing that it “No longer can it be said that the News, traditionally the more restrained of the city’s rival tabloids, lacks a fighting spirit.”

My fav. graphs:

Best of all were the quotes from the jilted would-be Scratch n’ Match winners, many culled from a complaint hotline that the Post set up to catalogue all those deferred dreams. Larry Whitt, a forty-two-year-old homeless man who thought he’d won a hundred grand (before taxes), told the paper, “I’m deaf. I’m an actor and model, and I’ve had many problems due to my hearing loss. I thought the money could pay all my bills, help me start my own American/Italian restaurant, buy a car, help my mom buy a house in Los Angeles, and invest in stocks and bonds.”

Last Wednesday, or Day Ten of the Post’s “Scratch n’ Stiff Scandal” watch, a few dozen Larry Whitt types assembled outside the offices of the News for a protest. They passed around photocopies of the previous Friday’s Post (“news out of scratch”) and told anyone who’d listen how much money they were owed. A plaintiff’s lawyer, Steven Gildin, addressed the crowd as his partners handed out business cards. “How can a company that publishes information make mistakes?” he said. (The Post, the following morning, misspelled Gildin’s name.) Then City Councilman Charles Barron called on everyone to boycott the Sunday News. The crowd began marching and shouting, “Boycott the Daily News!,” which turned to “No pay, no readers!” and, eventually, simply “We want money!”