Communications Breakdown: Tale of a Tabloid and a Congresswoman

The Post Loses it Over A.O.C.

Jeez, New York Post – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez really drives you crazy, huh?

We know she makes conservatives nuts, with her Green New Deal, her dreams of single-payer healthcare, and her college-era dance videos. She's also causing agita for Democrats . But with you it’s become, like, a thing .

Did you really put her on the front page two days in a row because she rides in vehicles with internal combustion engines? Did you really use puns that would have made the author of HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR groan? ECO TRIP and FUEL TO THE IRE seemed like the kind of first tries that land on the city room floor. Are you focusing?

It’s not like you invented the driving story - AOC in fact took 1,049 rides with Uber, Lyft, Juno and other services at a cost of $29,365,70 while fellow house freshman Max Rose listed only 329 rides at a cost of just over $6,000. And his district includes Staten Island, land of wide-open, subway-free spaces.

But on the tabloid hypocrisy scale we’d give it a four. The stories belonged somewhere inside the paper, like the one suggesting she might have paid her boyfriend in violation of campaign rules , or the ones questioning whether she lives in her late father’s apartment in Parkchester. These were reasonable mini-gotchas, we suppose. But if you’re out to destroy her because she’s liberal and popular, you’re not doing a very good job of it.

None of the Post’s stories landed nearly as clean a hit as J. David Goodman’s piece in The New York Times questioning why Ocasio-Cortez hadn’t opened a district office. Her spokespeople, usually pretty nimble, stepped in it when they blamed the government shutdown. Alas, the three other freshmen elected with AOC had already opened their district offices.

So what gives, New York Post ?

Maybe you watched that video of her dancing atop the Arts and Sciences building at Boston University and resented that she was super cool. Maybe you watched her question Michael Cohen and had to admit she was pretty damned effective.

Maybe you know that whatever you write about her, more readers will want to read about her and your numbers will go up, as Joe Pompeo suggested in Vanity Fair .

Then again, maybe you’re just jealous. After all, you have 1.45 million followers on Twitter. And she has 3.41 million .

The Unsung Heroes of the Subway Deal

The biggest winners in the governor and mayor’s joint plan to save the subways were the riders who miserably stop-and-start their way to work each day. But another constituency can claim victory, too.

To quote Humphrey Bogart at the end of Deadline - U.S.A., that’s the press, baby . New York’s aggressive cabal of transit reporters is unlike that of any other city. First of all, there’s a whole bunch of them. They dig deep into budgets. They attend public meetings. They talk tracks, signals and switches over drinks (they really do).

And they won this round, big.

Once a single story in The Daily News or The Post could cost a commissioner her job for buying a $3,000 pink sofa . No longer. But when all the big news outlets throw their resources at a single story, results can still be had.

Videos of trapped riders, major investigative efforts in The Times , and daily coverage in the tabloids packed a devastating journalistic punch that officials couldn’t ignore -- though at first they tried .

“ When I started covering transit for New York 1 in 2013, I was more often than not the only television reporter covering MTA meetings and the slide of the subway,” said Jose Martinez, who recently departed the station to cover the same beat at The City , the new nonprofit.

“Within four years, with the subway at its lowest point in many years , those meetings were packed with cameras,” he said. “And I had to show up 60-90 minutes early to claim a spot for my tripod. Everyone was paying attention.”

And that’s why the subways are fixed and shiny and clean and running on schedule with lower fares.

Okay, we’re kidding about that; Martinez and his transit beat buddies are reporters, not miracle workers. But their next drink is on us.

Daily News to Scotto: Drop Dead

Before we get any mistier about the city's newspapers, let’s stop to consider the Daily News’ front page on Tuesday.

It was a classic tabloid hit: The News wooded the widespread outrage from Upper Manhattan residents over cops who towed and relocated their cars (30 of them!) in preparation for a department flag football match . The officers attending the game at Columbia’s Baker Field proceeded to park their personal vehicles in crosswalks, at hydrants and in no-standing spots – and of course received no tickets, as the rest of us surely would have.

It was a maddening abuse of power. But The News left out one key detail: New York 1’s Mike Scotto broke the story the day before.

Scotto, a gentleman if ever there was one, did not take to social media to throw shade at the tabloid, as others might have (and did ). He used his Twitter feed to simply continue reporting the story. Sure, this wasn’t as bad as the time Rep. Michael Grimm threatened to throw him off a balcony, but it still had to be galling to be the victim of such blatant journalistic shoplifting.

We wish we were as unflappable as this supremely gifted reporter, but since we’re not here’s a message to the News : Show some more class next time.

Merchants of Truth: Epilogue

Former Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson did what she could to parry plagiarism allegations against her book “Merchants of Truth” last month, but there’s no doubt the accusations cast a shadow over her tome about journalism’s digital transformation. So now, four weeks later, how’s the book doing?

As of Tuesday, according to a friend who peeked at BookScan for us, “Merchants” had sold 4,000 hardcovers, not what Simon & Schuster likely imagined when it paid Abramson a reported $1 million advance.

Maybe the unrelenting plagiarism accusations killed it in the crib. Or maybe the rest of the world doesn't care so much about the industry’s digital transformation.

Kyle Pope explored this phenomenon in a smart essay in the Columbia Journalism Review , which he edits, entitled “Getting Over Ourselves.”

“ Journalism’s next great project has to be not looking in the mirror (which we’ve become quite good at over the past two years, first obsessing over every flaw and blemish, then staring in awe at our own self-importance),” he wrote, “but honestly assessing how others see us, and how we can see them better.”

So maybe the lackluster performance of “Merchants of Truth” isn’t solely Abramson’s fault. Maybe it just wasn’t a $1 million book to begin with.

Here and There

Jared Hohlt , after 20 years at New York Magazine , becomes editor of Slate … Lisa Chow , Eric Krupke , Marc Georges and Adizah Eghan join the “The Daily” at The Times … Louise Story , previously of The Times and very briefly of Tronc, is now at the Wall Street Journal and making lots of hires … glimmers of hope?

Quotable

“Trump has told confidants that he has ranked the loyalty of many reporters on a scale of 1 to 10. Bret Baier, Fox News’ chief political anchor, is a 6; Hannity a solid 10. Steve Doocy, the co-host of “Fox & Friends,” is so adoring that Trump gives him a 12. ” – Jane Mayer in The New Yorker.

Have a career announcement for Here and There? A Quotable quote?

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Kirtzman Strategies is a strategic communications and public affairs firm that works with public officials, nonprofits, companies, tech startups and education organizations.

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