From the NYT:
"Gary Anthony Ramsay, a longtime reporter and a weekend anchor for NY1 News, left the station this week, days after calling in to one of the channel’s live shows under a false name and commenting on a news story, a lapse in judgment that Mr. Ramsay described as “a flash moment of frustration."
Strangely, Ramsay, who was not "fired" so much as he "voluntarily chose to leave immediately following the incident," was seemingly not given any props for having the amazing foresight to coin his Upper East Side alter ego "Dalton."
• Even after reading what went on inside the New York Film Critics Circle, we're still not sure what went down.
• David Carr: Rewarding readers for reading is stupid.
• Surprise! Good Day New York is just a marketing show for its own properties.
• Newsday EIC John Mancini says there will be no punishment for the 113 newsroom staffers who signed the petition sent to Tribune Co.
• So far it's a holiday season filled with parties sans food.
• NY1 plays defense with Adele Sammarco sexual harassment scandal.
Former NY1 reporter and sometime weekend anchor Adele Sammarco has filed a lawsuit claiming the Time Warner-owned news network was a petri dish for sexual harassment. She claims she was "attacked" by anchor Gary Anthony Ramsay and had to put up with a Photoshopped version of herself with big boobs that was plastered around the office. All of which caused her to file a complaint with superiors and, she says, cost her the job.
Meanwhile, in the most dreaded of workplace scenarios, peons known as newsroom assistants even had a nickname for her.
The suit, filed in 2002, also claims news assistants regularly referred to her by the acronym "BBB" and later told her the nickname stood for "Big Butt Booty."
Though "BBB" still remains worse than Kate White nickname around the office, "YFB."
CONTINUED »
This morning, NY1 goes "under cover" with a secret camera (!) to bring us a shocking report: Canal Street in Chinatown, it appears, is choc full of counterfeit designer goods. And they're selling them to tourists!
We knew there was a reason why New York needed its own 24-hour news channel: To bring the news to the people.
• Even though she's appeared on more talking head shows than Toure, Maureen Dowd has only shipped a smidgen over 10,000 copies of her Are Men Necessary? in its first week — and at least a dozen of those went to us. [Drudge Report]
• When Michael Powell chaired the FCC, mere mention of a boob was reason for a script review. But in Kevin Martin's house of censorship, indecency complaints may be up, but so is inaction. [WSJ]
• Turns out Washington Post managing editor Bob Woodward did talk to an unnamed administration official about Valerie Plame's identity. It also turns out that we're tired of Valerie Plame. [WaPo]
• Mary Mapes new book Truth and Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power, which hit bookstore shelves Nov. 8, bares a title Judith Miller could've only hoped for. [NYO]
• It's a good thing you didn't hold out any hope for Men's Journal. The Wenner title is facing its latest walk off with exec editor Mark Horowitz following now ex-EIC Mike Caruso out the door. One less desk to tidy. [WWD]
• Gigi Stone did it. So did Greg Kelly and Debbie Feyerick. Now New York 1 anchor Davidson Goldin is ready to break-free from 24-hour NYC coverage and move to a 24-hour news network that only pretends there's a world outside NYC. [Page Six]
Jennifer Aniston sat down for a quick pool interview with Neil Rosen of NY1 to – what else? – plug her new flic Derailed.
The question on everybody's mind? Not what she thinks about Jessica Simpson talking to a therapist — but what's with the gossip industry's obssession with Jen?
She explains:
It's awkward, it's weird, it's uncomofortable, it's silly, it's toxic, it's stupid.
Hey, ya know what's awkward, weird, uncomfortable, silly, toxic and stupid? Pool interviews with Jennifer Aniston.
That fire raging in a Chelsea parking garage just won't quit, despite efforts by 175 firefighters. If you thought you had a raging burn after a holiday weekend, this four-alarm blaze is putting your clap to shame.
Fire Chief Peter Hayden said firefighters went inside the building but withdrew because of fears of exploding gas tanks on vehicles in the garage.
Eyewitnesses said explosions of cars' gas tanks could be heard outside.
Oh god, not the S class! Please, tell us there wasn't a 7 series! Oh wait, New York 1 employees park there and we're really not advocating anyone to risk his life saving a Kia.
If NY1's Debbie Duhame doesn't include any mention of that terror alert warning in her morning rail and road report, then we're pretty confident there's nothing to worry about.
After all, do you see any exploding bomb on that map? Didn't think so.
When NY1 anchor Lewis Dodley declares Thursday Styles is more exciting than Sunday Styles (as he did this morning) well, you kind of want to believe him.
Perhaps Guy Trebay's generic Fashion Week roundup or Natasha Singer's exploration into turning regular skinny girls into glossy, runway-ready skinny girls helped Dodley reach the conclusion. But for him, it was Jodi Kantor's look at pregnancy books.
We're going to be honest: We've never read a pregnancy book. In fact, of the six or seven books we have read, at least two of them were Christopher Rice beach reads, so you know where we're coming from. But that doesn't mean our interest is any less earnest. After all, we've been inside the womb, we know it's scary.
Even scarier (perhaps to expecting mothers, or just Dodley) is that the most well-known book for the Britney Spears set, What to Expect When You're Expecting, is widely debated as inaccurate and downright frightening.
The reaction comes in part from expecting parents who call it a worst-case-scenario handbook. (Nicknames include "What to Freak Out About When You Are Expecting" and "What to Expect if You Want to Develop an Eating Disorder.") Though many parents swear by it, a startling number protest that, instead of emphasizing the wondrous process of fetal development, the book dwells mostly on complications, including the pedestrian (anemia), the more exotic ("incompetent cervix") and a catalog of horrors at the book's end ("uterine rupture").
Well they're not going to come right out and say "You might be fucked, go get an abortion" now, are they? But hey, we will. You get the coat hangar, we'll untwist it.
• Not sure why Anna Wintour's friend Mohammed Al Fayed, owner of Harrods, would put his own daughter Camilla in harm's way, but he's managed to enlist her to be the Vogue editrix's personal intern this fall
• Conde Nast's business title might be nearly two years away, but it's already got Forbes owners worried enough to send out a missive to the entire biz staff.
• Jason Binn's luxe publishing house Niche Media unleashes its latest ode to wealth, Capitol File. The D.C. glossy weighs in at a heft 346 pages and probably weighs more than its cover subject, Ashley Judd.
• News Corp, fresh off its MySpace.com $580 million acquisition, continues its buying spree with a $650 million offer for Internet video gaming company IGN Entertainment.
• Men's Health will feature a disabled person for the first time on its November cover. Though don't expect David Zinczenko to pick a wheelchair-rolling ab maniac anytime soon — Cpl. Peter Sprenger "only" lost an eye and dons a patch.
• Apprentice no more! Bill Rancic, the winner from the show's first season, announced at a Malaysian conference that he's leaving The Donald next March to start his own business (and maybe have an office with a window?). But he's not totally severing ties, since he'll make guest appearances in Seasons 4 and 5 of the reality hit.
• NBC might be in fourth place in the ratings war but it's leading the buzz game when it comes to its fall season. At least that's based on what the society agenda-determining blogosphere is saying.
• eBay, already part owner of Craigslist, is looking to expand its one-of-the-people image with the purchase of VoIP company Skype. The price tag? An outrageous $2 to $3 billion, or as much as $5 billion.
• Today we celebrate NY1's 13th anniversary! Yey for local cable news actually worth watching more than its big brother cable nets.
Blogging already gives regular people a little too much power when it comes to determining what makes news. Downing Street Memo? C'mon, we all know how minor that story was — that's what the MSM avoided it, folks.
Now our very own NY1, where Queens are the Bronx suddenly become part of New York City, is introducing The Call. The new show lets viewers vote for programming by dragging and dropping news stories into the rundown — the same way producers do it in real life!
The program debuts on Monday and will air weeknights at 9pm, with news items scheduled based on voting averages.
Which means, if we can get VoteForTheWorst.com in on this, we can guarantee continuous coverage of Christian Slater groping or Lindsay Lohan club hopping.
Editorial Director
