Oh look I can look up stuff on the interwebs too.
Criticism
The Post has been criticized since the beginning of Murdoch's ownership for what many consider its lurid headlines, sensationalism, blatant advocacy and conservative bias. In 1980, the Columbia Journalism Review opined that "the New York Post is no longer merely a journalistic problem. It is a social problem – a force for evil."[29]
Perhaps the most serious allegation against the Post is that it is willing to contort its news coverage to suit the business needs of Murdoch, in particular that the paper has avoided reporting anything that is unflattering to the government of the People's Republic of China. Murdoch has invested heavily in satellite television in China and wants to maintain the favor of local media regulators.[30]
Ian Spiegelman, a former reporter for the paper's Page Six gossip column who had been fired by the paper in 2004,[31] said in a statement for a law suit against the paper that in 2001 he was ordered to kill an item on Page Six about a Chinese diplomat and a strip club because it would have "angered the Communist regime and endangered Murdoch’s broadcast privileges."
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."
According to a survey conducted by Pace University in 2004, the 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).[32]
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 African-Americans received from the paper.
There have been numerous controversies surrounding the Post:
In 1997 a national news story concerning Rebecca Sealfon's victory in the Scripps National Spelling Bee circulated. Sealfon was sponsored by the Daily News. The Post published a picture of her but altered the photograph to remove the name of the Daily News as printed on a placard she was wearing.[33]
On November 8, 2000, the Post printed "BUSH WINS!" in a huge headline,[34] although the presidential 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 March 10, 2004, the Post re-ran as a full-color page one photograph,[35] a photograph that had already been run three days earlier in black and white on page 9, showing the 24-story suicide plunge of a New York University student, who had since been identified as 19-year-old Diana Chien, daughter of a prominent Silicon Valley, California, businessman. Among criticisms levelled at the Post [36] was their having added a tightly cropped inset photograph of Chien, a former high-school track athlete, depicting her in mid-jump from an athletic meet, giving the false impression that it was taken during her fatal act, despite the fact that she had fallen face up.
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.[37] 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 of China.[38]
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 from an unknown terrorist.[39]
On December 7, 2006, the Post doctored a front-page photograph to depict the co-chairmen of the Iraq Study Group, James Baker and Lee Hamilton, in primate fur, under the headline "SURRENDER MONKEYS", inspired by a once-used line from The Simpsons. In defense of the "Surrender Monkeys" headline, media contributor Simon Dumenco wrote an Ad Age article about his love for the Post. [40]
On April 23, 2008, the Post ran a "Page Six" story stating that there was a sex tape about to surface featuring actor/stuntman Bam Margera and Lindsey Hughes, fiancée of radio personality Gregg "Opie" Hughes, co-host of the Opie and Anthony Show. It also stated that Hughes was planning on taking legal action to prevent the tape from running on the internet. Hughes himself said adamantly that there was no sex tape and he had never planned on taking any legal action against the phantom tape from surfacing. Also, on April 24, 2008, Margera confirmed during a phone-in to the Opie and Anthony Show that there was no sex tape and he had never met Opie's fiancée in his life. The Post printed a full retraction on May 5, 2008, after it was revealed that Chaunce Hayden of Steppin' Out magazine had supplied false information about the existence of the tape.
On February 18, 2009, the Post ran a cartoon by Sean Delonas that depicted a white police officer saying to another white police officer who has just shot a chimpanzee on the street: "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill." The cartoon referred the recent rampage of Travis, a former chimpanzee actor and was criticized to be in bad taste[41] primarily by making a reference to the racist stereotype of African-Americans being portrayed as non-human apes.The cartoon has been interpreted by some to compare President Barack Obama to a violent chimpanzee who promoted a stimulus bill that was unpopular with many Republicans. Civil rights activist/self-promoter Al Sharpton called the cartoon "troubling at best given the historic racist attacks of African-Americans as being synonymous with monkeys."[42] The Post has defended itself by stating that the cartoon was deliberately misinterpreted by its critics. [43]
The Post and the Daily News often take potshots at each other's work and accuracy, particularly in their respective gossip-page items.
In certain editions of the February 14, 2007, newspaper, an article referring to then-Senator Hillary Clinton's support base for her 2008 presidential run referred to then-Senator Obama as "Osama";[44] the paper realized its error and corrected it for the later editions and the website.[45] The Post noted the error and apologized in the February 15, 2007, edition.[46] Earlier, on January 20, 2007, the Post received some criticism[47] for running a potentially misleading headline, "'Osama' Mud Flies at Obama",[48] for a story that discussed rumors that then-Senator Obama had been raised as a Muslim and concealed it.
