During a recent press conference, Michael Bloomberg was fielding questions, and Newsday's Michael Frazier's made the mistake of using the word "maintain" to describe Bloomberg's position on the Sean Bell case, as in, "Mayor, you maintain that you kept a dialogue open with Sean Bell—."
The Bloomberg wasn't having it, responding: "Maintain is a word that I don’t think is appropriate, sir. The next time you have a question and want to insinuate that I lie, just talk to the press secretary. I don’t think we have a question for you." [NYO]
The Rev. Al Sharpton, whose Sean Bell protests shut down Manhattan's bridges and tunnels for much of yesterday, was arrested. [Reuters]
Sean Bell’s dead and the cops have been cleared of all criminal charges for their role in his death. As finite as those two things seem — Bell’s never coming back to life and the cops aren’t going to jail — the situation is far from over. There’s the inevitable civil case and federal investigation, which the New York Times editorial board hopes will provide “answers” that the criminal trial and subsequent verdict did not. There are the officer’s jobs, which the New York Daily News editorial board thinks they should be fired from, pronto. There’s the matter of police being allowed to shoot 50 rounds into the car of an unarmed person, which the New York Post editorial board thinks is A-ok.
Unless there is some sort of extreme weather or the subways are messed up, most days are good to live in New York City. Today is definitely not one of them. A judge, citing a “lack of witness credibility”* just acquitted three NYPD detectives of any wrongdoing in the death of 23-year-old Sean Bell, who died after plainclothes cops sprayed his car with 50 bullets as he left a Queens strip club with his friends. He was getting married to the mother of his child later that day.
We've been dipping our aching feet into the weatherman scene lately. And today, while the sun may be shining bright outside, things are getting gloomy within the confines of, well, this post.
Last we relayed, WABC 7 weatherman Sam Champion could allegedly be seen hand-in-hand (at church, no less) with Sean Bell, who may or may not be an online escort available on Manhunt.net. (Sam and Sean's attorney, meanwhile, argues to us that Bell is not for sale on Manhunt.) We'll get to the latest details on that sordid relationship in a moment, but first let's use Sam Champion as a jumping off point to get to some media news you might actually be interested in.
With Al Roker standing firm at NBC's Today, we've only got the weather crew at ABC's Good Morning America and CBS's The Early Show to toy with. So, why don't we?
We're hearing that The Early Show's professional map pointer (since July '03) Dave Price, who holds down the local and national gig, is making an exit from Les Moonves' house and heading over to GMA. Les, try as he might to hang on to Price, is said to be fighting a losing battle; Price has nearly signed with GMA.
So where does the blonde-locked Sam Champion fall into this? We're told he was his own biggest lobbiest for the Good Morning America job, even taking to Larry King's airwaves to make his cause. But Mr. Champion's, ahem, "'lifestyle' is too apparent on television and won't carry well on national TV to homes across America," says our tattler.
Meanwhile, over in the blissful gayborhood that Sam and Sean Bell live in, we hear from another well-placed source that New York's most loved weather fella is getting Kevin Federlined. Those details, after the jump.
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Who's that up there on the left, and whose ass is that on the right, you might be asking. We didn't recognize the fella's face (or ass) that landed in our inbox either, until we actually read the copy.
On Monday, we told you about WABC 7 weatherman-slash-golden boy Sam Champion's new beau, a one Sean Bell. Between showing him off to friends and attending church in Harlem, there probably wasn't any time for Sam to explain what Sean does.
Luckily, our avid (and pay-for-sex-play) readers do have the time. What you're looking at are (allegedly!, require the lawyers) Sean Bell's photos from his Manhunt.net profile, where he (allegedly!) advertises his "services." He describes himself as versatile (though, in action, we hear he's a strict top) and, we hear (allegedly!), "He did enjoy fisting though!"
How lovely for Mr. Champion. We heard the twosome met over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, which must've included one very long one-handed conversation.
After the jump, the full versions of those not-so-titillating pics.
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