Twitter V. The NY Post, the public interest and the unalienable right to know

Impunity City

Let October 14th 2020 go down in history as the day when censorship became policy by a monopolistic social media monolith.

It started off rather innocuously. The New York Post published the long awaited but already well known and confirmed story of presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden’s pay to play corruption to obscenely enrich himself, his father and an energy company in Ukraine who hired him and paid him over 80 grand a month through email messages procured from a laptop Hunter (or someone close to him) carelessly left behind at a computer repair shop. This expose’ instantly debunked Joe’s persistent claims that he never had contact with any executive from the foreign company Hunter worked for and exposed how the vice president abused his position and duties to get a prosecutor fired in Ukraine that was investigating corruption inside the company Hunter worked for. Which Biden defiantly bragged about doing when he answered a question during a forum on foreign policy only 2 years ago. 

The NY Post followed this up with a flurry of other stories of Hunter Biden using his relation to the second most powerful person in America at the time to acquire more wealth and influence for the companies and acquaintances he associated with. Which were immediately available on the NY Post’s social media accounts…

And then at 2:20 in the afternoon, it stopped.

 

Such cutting edge humor!

No one appreciates sarcasm more than me, but the $1M price tag is most likely because it's being marketed as a teardown.

Also, did the Post just realize that this is the going rate for property in working class neighborhoods these days?



JQ LLC: It also looks like the bank recently had the residents kicked out of the house too. 

A million for a house in Bath Beach? Mental.

Post calls for cleanup of the Queens Machine

From the NY Post:

The anti-nepotism reforms followed on years of Post reporting by Haberman, Allen Salkin and the late Jack Newfield.

Back in 1998, they found that the vast majority of lawyers receiving repeat Queens Surrogate Court assignments had direct ties to the county Democratic Party and its then-leader, Rep. Thomas Manton.

Newfield later noted that Manton’s own firm had received more than $400,000 in court patronage from 1997 to 2000. The Crowley clan had similar success.

Those exposés (Brooklyn had its own outrages) helped force a 2002 review by the state’s then-Chief Judge Judith Kaye that found rampant cronyism in the Supreme and Civil Court systems. The “cure” included the rules that the Crowley clan got caught violating in 2011.

But those reforms plainly didn’t go far enough. Newfield’s charge that the “patronage courtrooms in Brooklyn and Queens” might as well be “rigged casinos in Las Vegas” still rings true.

At a minimum, it’s surely time for current Chief Judge Janet DiFiore to lead a new review. The rising odor is a sign the stables need cleaning again.

Myungsuk strikes back

From the Politicker:

Myungsuk Lee, one of many candidates vying to replace Assemblywoman Grace Meng's soon-to-be-vacated seat, has been battered by a couple recent New York Post articles reporting the existence of prostitution ads in the newspaper he owns, the Korean American Times. But, according to a source monitoring the Korean language media, it seems Mr. Lee is not going to be taking the issue sitting down.

Mr. Lee reportedly held a press conference last Friday arguing that the alleged brothels are, in fact, legal businesses, and said he would seek to file a lawsuit against the Post for defamation and libel. In a translation provided to The Politicker, Mr. Lee further said he would seek a face-to-face discussion with the publication's management, which he said produces articles "against Korean-American community at large."

Of course, defamation lawsuits against political figures are notoriously difficult to prove in the United States as they require significant evidence of malicious intent. But Mr. Lee likely feels that he needs to push back in order to succeed in the September 13th primary, where he is competing against Democrats Ron Kim, Yen Chou, Ethel Chen, John Scandalios and Martha Flores-Vazquez.

Money that Quinn didn't cut...

From the NY Post:

Let’s be clear: Nobody should be getting member-item money.

These are lump-sum appropriations that corrupt the political process by giving incumbents cash to curry unfair favor with constituents; simultaneously, these cash goodies give bullying council bosses undue leverage over their underlings.

And Vallone — who apparently irritated Quinn and had his cash yanked as an example — proves the point.

Yet Quinn is cool with Lopez, who attracts the FBI like overripe pork attracts flies. Quinn channeled $4.4 million this year to his Brooklyn power base — the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council — through Brooklyn council members Domenic Recchia, Erik Dilan, Stephen Levin and Elizabeth Crowley.

While some $3.75 million is earmarked for alleged “capital construction,” the rest neatly covers salary and benefits for:

* Chris Fisher, Ridgewood executive director/Lopez campaign treasurer ($607,000).

* Angela Battaglia, Ridgewood’s housing director/Lopez girlfriend ($282,940).

(Quinn also managed to find $2 million for the United Federation of Teachers’ academically shaky charter school — but that’s a tale for another day.)

Hypocritical mayor serves cupcakes to newspeople

From the NY Post:

Mayor Bloomberg can try, but he can't push his cupcakes on Post Editorial Page Editor Bob McManus, who refused to even look at the calorie-loaded temptations.

Bloomberg, either unaware or blissfully unconcerned that cupcakes can lead to cavities, weight gain and very sticky fingers, peddled the sugary treats during a meeting with the Post's editorial board.

The meeting came just a day after the paper reported that Hizzoner -- who has railed against salt, trans fats, sugar and cigarettes -- had awarded a contract to a Queens bakery allowing it to sell pricey cupcakes on city property.

The city -- after just banning bake sales in schools -- is slated to rake in an extra $108,000 in the first year alone.

NY Post steals yet another story from a blogger

My buddy Andrew Fine (yes, he's a realtor, but a helpful one) posted a story on his blog on March 1st about a Chuck E. Cheese in Harlem having a sign at the front door prohibiting gang attire.

The NY Post ran a story today about the same thing without crediting Andrew or his blog as a source and acted as though they got the scoop.

This is nothing new, folks.

The old guard feels very threatened by the popularity of blogs.

They've done the same thing to Miss Heather many times.

Apparently, they don't think it's either appropriate or necessary to give credit where credit is due. Now if bloggers saw something in the Post and then repeatedly reported the Post's exclusives as if they discovered them, I'm sure there would be a scathing editorial in the Post or perhaps a Peyser piece about how wrong this is.

You'd think a billionaire like Rupert Murdoch would be able to employ enough talented people to get enough original material to fill his rag on a daily basis.

Instead they have employed Queens Tribune alumni to recycle bloggers' stories.