New York Post

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One of the paper's most famous headlines
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Tabloid
Owner	News Corporation
Editor	Col Allan
Founded	1801
Headquarters	1211 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10036-8790  United States
Circulation	673,379 Daily 413,763 Sunday[1]
Website: nypost.com

The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and the oldest to have been published continually as a daily.^[2] Since 1993, it has been owned by Australian-born billionaire Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and, as of October 2006, is one of the 10 largest newspapers in the United States.^[3] Its editorial offices are located at 1211 Avenue of the Americas, in Manhattan.

Contents 1 Paper's history 2 The Murdoch years 3 Highlights 4 Sales 5 Mob Control 6 Criticisms 7 Trivia 8 Fictional references 9 Further reading 10 See also 11 External links 12 References

[edit] Paper's history

The paper was founded by Alexander Hamilton with about $10,000 from a group of investors in the autumn of 1801 as the New-York Evening Post,^[4] a broadsheet quite unlike today's tabloid. Hamilton's co-investors included other New York members of the Federalist Party, such as Robert Troup and Oliver Wolcott,^[5] who were dismayed by the election of Thomas Jefferson and the rise in popularity of the Democratic-Republican Party.^[6] The meeting at which Hamilton first recruited investors for the new paper took place in the country weekend villa that is now Gracie Mansion.^[7] Hamilton chose for his first editor William Coleman,^[8] but the most famous 19th-century Evening Post editor was the poet and Abolitionist William Cullen Bryant.^[9] So well respected was the Evening Post under Bryant's editorship, it received praise from the English philosopher, John Stuart Mill, in 1864.^[10]

In 1881 Henry Villard took control of the Evening Post,^[11] which in 1897 passed to the management of his son, Oswald Garrison Villard,^[12] a founding member of both the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People^[13] and the American Civil Liberties Union.^[14] Conservative Cyrus H. K. Curtis^[15] -- publisher of the Ladies Home Journal -- purchased the New York Evening Post in 1924^[16] and turned it into a tabloid in 1933.^[17] J. David Stern purchased the paper in 1934, changed its name to the New York Post,^[18] and restored its size and liberal perspective.^[19]

Dorothy Schiff purchased the paper in 1939; her husband, George Backer, was named editor and publisher. ^[20] Her second editor (and third husband) Ted Thackrey became co-publisher and co-editor with Schiff in 1942,^[21] and recast the paper into its current tabloid format.^[22] James Wechsler became editor of the paper in 1949, running both the news and the editorial pages; in 1961, he turned over the news section to Paul Sann and remained as editorial page editor until 1977. Under Schiff's tenure the Post was devoted to liberalism, supporting trade unions and social welfare, and featured some of the most popular columnists of the time, such as Drew Pearson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Max Lerner, Murray Kempton, Pete Hamill, and Eric Sevareid. In 1976 the Post was bought by Rupert Murdoch for $30 million.^[23] The Post at this point was the only surviving afternoon daily in New York City, but its circulation under Schiff had grown by two-thirds.^[24]

[edit] The Murdoch years

While in the past the newspaper had been a long-established politically liberal stalwart, in recent years the paper has adopted a conservative slant, reflecting Murdoch's politics.

Murdoch imported the sensationalist "tabloid journalism" style of his British tabloid papers such as The Sun, typified by the Post's famous April 15, 1983 headline: HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR. The Post also recycled The Sun's famous GOTCHA headline, this time in reference to the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi instead of the Falklands War.

Because of the institution of federal regulations limiting media cross-ownership, Murdoch was forced to sell the paper for $37.6 million in 1988 to Peter S. Kalikow, a real estate magnate with no news experience.^[25] When Kalikow declared bankruptcy in 1993,^[26]the paper was temporarily managed by Steven Hoffenberg,^[27] a financier who later pled guilty to securities fraud;^[28] and, for two weeks, by Abe Hirschfeld,^[29] who made his fortune building parking garages. The Post was repurchased in 1993 by Murdoch's News Corporation, after numerous political officials, including Democratic New York Governor Mario Cuomo, persuaded the Federal Communications Commission to grant Murdoch a permanent waiver from the cross-ownership rules that had forced him to sell the paper five years earlier.^[30] Under Murdoch's renewed direction, the paper continued its conservative editorial viewpoint.

[edit] Highlights

The paper is well known for its sports section, which has been praised for its comprehensiveness; it begins on the back page, and among other coverage, contains columns about sports in the media by Phil Mushnick.

The New York Post is also well known for its gossip columnists Liz Smith and Cindy Adams. The best known gossip section is 'Page Six', edited by Richard Johnson. (Despite the name, since the end of the 20th Century the feature has usually been printed on page 10 or page 12.) It is reported that "Page Six" is the first thing many celebrities turn to each morning. Feb. 2006 saw the debut of Page Six: the magazine, distributed free inside the paper.

[edit] Sales

The daily circulation of the Post slumped in the final years of the Schiff era from 700,000 in the late 1960s^{[citation needed]} to approximately 418,000.^{[citation needed]} A resurgence in the 21st century boosted circulation to 673,379 in September 2006,^[1] achieved partly by lowering the price from 50 to 25 cents.

One commentator has suggested that the Post cannot become profitable as long as the competing Daily News survives, and that Murdoch may be trying to force the Daily News to fold or sell out.^[31]

[edit] Mob Control

^{[citation needed]}

Salvatore Vitale, the brother-in-law to Bonnano crime family mob boss had his son Anthony Vitale work for the newspaper on a no-show job until Salvatore arranged for mob associate, Robert "Bobby" Perrino to work there. Perrino was a supervisor in the distribution arm of the newspaper. In the early 1990's the Bonnano crime family had it's hooks deeply embedded in the distribution arm of the newspaper, which was then located on Manhattan's Lower East Side. The labor pool was infested with mob associates, including three "made" Bonnano crime family soldiers. The Bonannos were paid wages- some of which amounted to $50,000 a year-- of no less than fifty-one "no-show" employees. In addition to this labor scam, contracts went to friends of the Bonnanos, who kicked some money back as a way of returning the favor. For years Bonnano soldiers stole thousands of papers a day and sold them to vendors for twenty, thirty cents each, when at the time they cost fifty cents. Over time the Bonnanos became so entrenched at the newspaper that they eventually set up loan shark operations, sold firearms and organized narcotic distribution directly from the building. The NYPD then hit a wire tap in the office of Perrino who was the delivery supernintendant that had hired Vitale's son. Perrino was the son of Bonnano crime family underboss Nicolas "Nicky Glasses" Marangello. Perrino wasn't a made member of the family but he ran the distribution arm and handed out the no-show jobs and doctored the ledgers so that the stolen paper bundles weren't missed. He even did a little shylocking on the side. He was murdered by fellow employee, and mob associate Richard Cantarella, who was a "tail man", a worker who rode on the back of delivery trucks and unloaded the bundles. Perrino's body remained hidden until December of 2003 when his skeleton was found embedded in the concrete floor of a construction company in Staten Island. He had been shot multiple times in the head. His death was ordered by Vitale and Richard Cantarella. After Perrino's dissapearance, the government lost their star witness and a group of Bonnano crime family soldiers were sent to Riker's Island, but Salvatore Vitale and Richard Cantarella, avoided prosecution. Nobody was ever charged for the murder of Perrino.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Criticisms

Murdoch's Post has been criticized from the beginning for what many consider its lurid headlines, sensationalism, and blatant advocacy, and conservative bias. In 1980, the Columbia Journalism Review asserted that "the New York Post is no longer merely a journalistic problem. It is a social problem - a force for evil."^[32]

Critics say that the Post allows its editorial positions to shape its story selection and news coverage. But as the Post executive editor, Steven D. Cuozzo, sees it, it was the Post that "broke the elitist media stranglehold on the national agenda." Post supporters cite a series of recent scandals at the broadsheet New York Times as proof that this problem is not unique to the Post.

According to a survey conducted by Pace University in 2004, the New York Post was rated the least credible major news outlet in New York, and the only news outlet to receive more responses calling it "not credible" than credible (44% not credible to 39% credible). ^[33]

There have been numerous controversies surrounding the Post:

• On November 8, 2000, the Post printed "BUSH WINS!" in a huge headline, although the election remained in doubt because of the recount needed in Florida. Like the Post, many other newspapers around the country published a similar headline after the four major TV networks called the election for Bush.

• On October 17, 2003, the Post printed an editorial congratulating the Boston Red Sox for having defeated the New York Yankees for the American League pennant. In fact, the Yankees had won the game and taken the pennant. The paper had written two editorials in advance, based on the possible outcomes, and a computer glitch resulted in the wrong editorial being published. As a result, the paper announced that it would no longer write advance editorials.

• On July 4, 2004, the Post ran an article claiming to have learned exclusively that Senator John Kerry, the Democratic Party's Presidential nominee-in-waiting, had selected former House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt to be the Party's Vice Presidential nominee. The article, under the headline "KERRY'S CHOICE," ran without a byline [1]. The next day, the Post had to print a new story, "KERRY'S REAL CHOICE," reporting Kerry's actual selection of Senator John Edwards of North Carolina as his running mate.

• On April 21, 2006, several Asian-American advocacy groups protested the use of the headline "Wok This Way" for a Post article about President Bush's meeting with the president of the People's Republic China. ^[34]

• On September 27, 2006 the Post published an article called "Powder Puff Spooks Keith" that made fun of Countdown host Keith Olbermann receiving an anthrax threat [2].

• On December 7, 2006 the Post doctored a front-page photo to depict the co-chairmen of the Iraq Study Group in primate fur, under the headline "SURRENDER MONKEYS", inspired by a frequently used line from The Simpsons.

The Post and the Daily News often take potshots at each other's articles and their accuracy, particularly in their respective gossip-page items, saying that the juicy information printed about some celebrity or other has been checked, and that the celebrity or his/her publicist has denied it.

In certain editions of the February 14, 2007, newspaper, an article referring to Senator Hillary Clinton's support base for her 2008 presidential run referred to United States Senator Barack Obama as "Osama" (Bin Laden)^[35], the paper realized its error and corrected it for the newer editions and the website^[36]. The Post noted the error and apologized in the February 15, 2007^[37] edition. Earlier, on January 20, 2007, the New York Post received some criticism^[38] for running a potentially misleading headline, "Osama' Mud Flies at Obama"^[39], for a story that discussed rumors that Sen. Obama had been raised as a Muslim and concealed it. The story itself never mentioned the Saudi terrorist, and the rumor is false.

[edit] Trivia

• The New York Post, established 1801, describes itself as the nation's oldest continuously published daily newspaper. The Hartford Courant, which describes itself as the nation's oldest continuously published newspaper, was founded in 1764 as a semi-weekly paper; it didn't begin publishing daily until 1836. The New Hampshire Gazette, which has trademarked its claim of being The Nation's Oldest Newspaper, was founded in 1756, also as a weekly. Moreover, since the 1890s it has only been published on weekends.
• When Rupert Murdoch once asked the chairman of Bloomingdale's why he wasn't buying ads in the Post, he was allegedly told "because your readers are my shoplifters." (This anecdote has also been told about other publications, and the Bloomingdale's chairman, Marvin Traub, has denied ever saying this about the Post.)^[40]
• The Public Enemy song "A Letter to the New York Post" from their album Apocalypse '91...The Enemy Strikes Black is a complaint about what they believed to be negative and inaccurate coverage the group received from the paper.
• In 2004, The Post received The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal Award "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York."

[edit] Fictional references

• In the Spider-Man films, the Daily Bugle appears to be based on the Post. The Post explicitly takes the place of the Bugle in the Daredevil film.
• A fictional paper, the New York Ledger, clearly modeled on the New York Post, with similar layout and loud tabloid style often appears on the television show Law & Order.
• In the spy farce film Top Secret!, one of the villain's henchmen is introduced as "Klaus . . . a moron, who knows only what he reads in the New York Post." Actor John Carney, a large man with a blank, rather unintelligent looking expression on his face, is holding a copy of the New York Post as this is said.
• The Post has also appeared in such films as The Manchurian Candidate (the original version with Frank Sinatra), Men in Black and Working Girl.
• In the 1988 film Married to the Mob, an FBI agent played by Oliver Platt holds up a newspaper to his partner, played by Matthew Modine. Although the paper is called the New York News, it is otherwise a perfect match for the Post. The headline, "HAMBURGER HOMICIDE," discusses a mob shootout at a fictional fast food chain called Burger World, in which a boss played by Dean Stockwell not only survived an attempted hit which killed his driver, but also killed the opposing hitmen, including the drive-thru attendant wearing the chain's mascot clown uniform and makeup, leading to the line, "Some clown just tried to kill me!"
• The New New York Post has occasionally appeared in Futurama.[3]
• In October 1984, a parody called "The Post New York Post" was published, ostensibly the issue from the day after the start of World War III. The front-page headline was "KABOOM!" The subhead read, "Michael Jackson, 80 million others dead."[4]

[edit] Further reading

• The Post's New York : Celebrating 200 Years of New York City As Seen Through the Pages and Pictures of the New York Post, 2001

[edit] See also

• Fox News Channel
• Rupert Murdoch
• News Corporation
• Media of New York City
• Phil Mushnick

[edit] External links

• New York Post Online official site
• Circulation & Readership
• New York Post at Discourse DB
• New York Post editorial board at Discourse DB

[edit] References