Most annoying reporter?

Here's a question for all six New York Two readers - who is the most annoying NY1 reporter? For me, it's a toss-up between entertainment reporter George Whipple (he of the revolting eyebrows) or parenting reporter Shelley Goldberg. It might be the latter, since I pretty much have to mute the TV during all of her segments.

Who else am I forgetting about?

In other news, I physically cringed with embarrassment for Dean Meminger, who filed a totally pointless report from Mexico City about how Mexicans aren't shaking hands with people they meet for fear of spreading/contracting swine flu. One man he interviewed said, "We've actually been doing it with our feet," to which Meminger exclaimed, "REALLY?!?!" The man sighed impatiently and with a look of disgust said, "It's a joke." OH DEAN. That story is clearly winding down. Come back to NYC and start filing from the Bronx again, will you?

I'm baaaack

Howdy folks.

I'm back from Paris (where I attempted to watch some local news despite the fact that I speak no French -- quelle surprise, I had no idea what they were talking about) and I'm filled with resolve to update more regularly again.

I've been working from home today, so I got to catch today's ITP on its first run. It was a pretty good edition. The highlight was Pat's discussion of a story about how John Wayne Bobbit doesn't hate his ex-wife Lorena, despite the fact that she "did some surgery" on him a few years ago, as Pat hilariously put it. He pointed out that the headline -- "No Hard Feelings" -- was probably the best in a NYC newspaper today. I think it was a Daily News story, though that does sound like a Post headline.

He lead the segment with a Daily News story that confirmed what I've always suspected -- the comparatively expensive Priority Mail option doesn't actually get your mail to its destination any faster than a garden variety. $0.42 first-class stamp. Pat pointed out that it's a remarkably simple story, but a good one.

In another paper - I didn't catch which one - he highlighted a story about an 8-year-old who drove Go-Karts that can achieve speeds of up to 60 mph. Pat wryly noted that there is zero chance you'll see his 7-year-old daughter doing that.

He also mentioned a WSJ story, cleverly titled "Big Bored," about how traders on the NYSE are now spending their work days sneaking off to watch movies and otherwise kill time now that trading volumes are down so dramatically.

Elsewhere in the WSJ, there was a story about how publishers are trying to launch their own versions of Kindle, to push their content and attempt to revive their dying newspapers. I have to say, I will be REALLY upset to see the day when this segment has to get re-named In the Blogs. I know this sounds patently idiotic, coming from a blogger, but I do not like reading many blogs, and I certainly don't like reading them for news. This blog is in NO way a news service, but you knew that.

Anyway, I think there are some amazing blogs out there, but the only good ones for news are written by professional journalists. The newsgathering processes for pro bloggers and pro journos should be exactly the same. And I still love my dead-tree newspapers, even though half the content is outdated by the time I get it. Do I sound like an old crank? Yes? Oh, to hell with you, then! (That was my old man/Walt Kowalski imitation.)

Other highlights from this morning: Poor Dean Meminger, who is covering the Swine Flu beat from Mexico City, filed a story mostly memorable for the shot of a man playing guitar to an empty church -- the guy's eyebrows made Frida Kahlo look like she had regular tweezes at Bliss or something. And the New Yorker of the Week segment focused on a woman who teaches math to poor New York City women who are trying to get work in construction jobs. The teacher does this for free and gets results, though her students are shockingly undereducated when they first enter her class. One woman reported that she could not read a tape measure before taking the class. And I thought I was bad at math!

It's going to be a beautiful weekend, according to NY1.

I was getting amused this morning at how news anchor Cheryl Wills was getting progressively more excited about each successive weather report. It went from "It's going to be lovely" to "It's going to be absolutely gorgeous" to "Break out the bikinis, woo!"

Other highlights included Roger Clark cuddling with kittens at an animal shelter, and Pat Kiernan uttering the phrase "Skinny Bitch" during ITP.

With that, there will be no updates for the next week, as I am off to Paris. I don't think there's a Neu York Un there.

See you next week!

Catholic overload

Once again, I apologize for the cobwebs up in here. I’ve been staring down some major deadlines for work, so I haven’t had much time to turn on the TV, let alone write about it.

But I will say that for the five or six times I managed to catch a few minutes of NY1 last week, it seemed like EVERY time I watched, it was all about the new Head Catholic Guy (or cardinal or archbishop or whatever) that has been appointed in New York.

I understand this story is important to the city’s Catholics, but for those of us who aren’t Catholic (which would be the majority of New Yorkers), it has no bearing whatsoever on our day to day lives. Personally, I could not be less religious – I don’t mind if other people are, as long as they’re not all murdery about it and don’t try to convert me – and I found myself getting irritated that NY1 was devoting so much airtime to this story. This morning, they were STILL going on about it. Aren’t there other, more important things to report on? It’s time to move on, guys!

Pat's Papers relaunch

I’m a bit late in blogging this, but time-starved Americans can now enjoy their own version of “In the Papers” -- the beloved NY1 feature in which Pat Kiernan highlights the major stories in the print NYC newspapers every day and which regular readers will know is the main reason I still subscribe to Time Warner Cable (‘cause you can’t get NY1 with other providers) – with the relaunch of “Pat’s Papers.”

Viewers around the country can now watch taped roundups of the national newspapers, which follow the exact same format as In The Papers and are taped during Pat’s downtime at the station. There’s a story about it in today’s New York Times, which also raises the aspect of how this allows Pat to build his brand.

I didn’t catch ITP today, as I left the house well before it came on and haven’t had a chance to catch the repeat online. So the best part of this morning’s broadcast, based on the 10 minutes I got to watch, was undoubtedly listening to Roma Torrey, one of NY1’s most conservative looking and professional sounding anchors, utter the phrase “80s glam metal” in her review of the new Broadway musical “Rock of Ages” (which looks god awful, by the way).

The Cyclone opens, but whither the rest of Coney Island?

This morning New York One had a story on the annual opening day of the Cyclone, that famously rickety deathtrap of a rollercoaster on Coney Island. The Cyclone is ancient, decrepit and falling apart, but is dearly beloved by zillions of devoted followers -- much like Coney Island itself. But, as the NY1 report noted, the rest of Coney Island's future hangs in the balance. The rest of Astroland has been shuttered, several boardwalk institutions like Ruby's are closing, and city officials want to turn CI into a "year-round destination" (read: clean and safe for children and yuppie families).

I can see why they would want to do this, really I can, but I'm one of those old, nostalgic die-hards who wants Coney Island to stay exactly how it is. I love my annual treks to CI for the free Siren Music Festival, the annual freakshow that is the Mermaid Day Parade, the extremely "colorful" locals (a journalistic euphemism if there ever was one - if you see it in an article, it usually means the person being described is batshit crazy) and of course, my beloved Nathan's Hot Dogs. To me, Coney Island without these things isn't Coney Island at all. Look, if I want to go to a nice beach, I'll hop on the LIRR and go to long beach, okay? So leave CI alone!

But I guess it wouldn't be the first time CI has changed. According to Ken Burns' documentary on New York City, it was once an extremely posh refuge for the rich. Let's at least hope it doesn't go back to that...

Newsflash: people are dumb. But also, have big hearts.

In today's ITP, Pat highlighted an article in today's NY Daily News in which reporters conducted man on the street interviews asking people, "What is the G20?" Pat called the results "depressing" and pointed to one woman's answer in particular -- "Is that the new Gatorade drink"? "No, that's the G2," Pat sighed, with an air of utter disgust.

He also pointed out an article in one of the papers discussing the international shit storm that was apparently launched when Michelle Obama had the audacity to give the Queen a hug. Apparently this is Not Done. Oh, give me a break. First of all, it's not as if the Queen recoiled in horror; the photo shown in the article Pat was reading indicated that the hug was pretty mutual. Secondly, the Queen's lavish lifestyle is taxpayer funded, so I think UK citizens ought to be able to manhandle the old broad whenever they want! (Okay, I don't actually think that. I just think people need to not be so prim and proper and just relax a little.)

On a separate note, viewers may remember a "NY1 for You" segment a few weeks ago in which the consumer's crusader, reporter Susan Juhn, interviewed a grief-stricken elderly man whose wife of 30 years died suddenly and he didn't have the money to bury her. Well, this week, Juhn reported that thanks to the kindness of NY1 viewers, donations poured in, and with the additional help of Legal Aid and an NYC law firm working pro bono, the man was able to raise enough money to finally lay his wife to rest. It was a total tear-jerker of a story and I won't lie, it made me a little farklempt.

So what else is happening on NY1 this week? Well, apparently both NYC baseball teams have new stadiums or something. Seriously, it seems to be ALL they can talk about. It's as if nothing else is happening elsewhere in the world. Also, the reports are by and large ridiculously flattering and gushy. But one reporter pointed out that when the excitement wears off, the sticker shock will set in. The price of taking a small family to a game at Yankee stadium and buying each a hot dog and a beverage? Something like $250. What's crazy is that people will probably show up in droves anyway.