I like Gothamist. I like them a lot. Oh sure, they throw out a stupid remark every now and then, but for the most part, if you live in New York, you have to read Gothamist to know what’s going on.

A few days ago, though, Jake posted something that just set me off.

They posted the above picture with the following text:

We’re always willing to give props to citizens who insert themselves in the background of local news shots– what’s more New York than yelling “hey, mom, I’m on the news”? Still, this was in poor taste. Screwing with Al Roker is one thing– but interrupting a report on something like this? Definitely uncool.

So the coolness of jumping on camera is directly proportional to the “importance” of the story?

Nonsense. That just reeks of arrogant hypocrisy.

Luckily, Gothamist readers didn’t let this self-righteous horsecrap stand out there without challenging it. One comment echoed my thoughts almost exactly:

[T]he whole local news scene resembles nothing so much as sustained, well-paid buffoonery. “Here’s (name your favorite reporter) live - in a dark parking lot outside a supermarket where something happened twelve hours ago! But we put him/her there, so we could stick a “LIVE” sign in your screen’s upper left corner! Are we cool, and on top of it, or what?” Well, no, in my view; you just look like a bunch of idiots putting somebody out there in a dark and empty parking lot because something happened there this morning. The Happy Gilmore factor adds nothing, but the newsies were bad enough left to their own devices.
I’ve often thought that the eleven-o’clock news should probably be over by about 11:05. Five minutes is enough to deliver the actual news - the rest of it’s fluff, background, speculation, and BS, frankly. “Earlier tofday [sic] this event happened in this place. The police are clueless, but working on it.” End of actual news value of story; all else is filler.

Face it. The news media is just a bunch of exploiting asses in this city. They wait for a murder to happen, rush out there with a van, stand two blocks away to report “live” from the scene, and then put on their serious face and tell you every gruesome detail. Then, without missing a beat, they throw it back to the studio where some anchor ass makes the “that’s sad” face, and then smiles and hits the weather man for a preview of the weather that’s coming up after the break.

They’re a bunch of disingenuous idiots and I could really care less what the story is about; they never cover it unless it’ll get them ratings anyway. Them taking the high road here is not evidence of empathy for Immette St. Guillen, but of pompous self-importance.

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