Admit It, MUGGER: You Like the Post; Signorile's Coultergeist; Where's Willis?; Bravo to the "Billboard"; More

MUGGER: I find your rationale for spanking the New York Post over their Allen Myerson suicide coverage weak (8/28). Please?while you claim to take the high road, avoiding the sleaze, celeb and crime coverage on the front page of the Post, you caved in this time and read. I understand you were just researching in the name of media criticism. But didn't you, too, wonder, like any good journalist?why?

And why shouldn't the Post dig deeper than a mere mention of Myerson's suicide? Am I to believe that if a regular Joe?that is, not a journalist?jumped from the Times building, there wouldn't be coverage of it? Surely there would be some mention of why a man would commit such a violent and public suicide.

Did the Times take a higher road because they printed an obit that recalled articles Myerson had worked on? Let's face it?who cares what business articles he edited! The public, and, yes, even the media elite, want to know why a seemingly successful professional checked in at work, scribbled a note on a legal pad, blithely asked a colleague where the roof entrance was and then climbed the flight of stairs and jumped.

Why don't you just admit it?you read the Post and somewhere deep down inside, you enjoy it. No disclaimers, no explanations. No one will think less of you for admitting it. Be brave: set an example that reporting, sometimes salacious, sometimes cold and inhuman, is a sleazy business, especially when you're willing to go deeper.

By the way, your assessment of "Page Six" (irrelevant and stale) was right-on; your reading of Cindy Adams and Liz Smith also astute.

Suzanne Ely, Manhattan

Coultergeist

Mike Signorile: Who says there are no more barbarians? Ann Coulter is the stiletto lips of the right ("The Gist," 8/28). Who says women cannot learn to act like men? Coulter is meaner and nastier than Newt Gingrich ever thought about. Imagine that! Newt Gingrich seen as gentle. The very idea is thoroughly frightening. I still cannot comprehend: Why is there so much hatred among so-called or self-defined conservatives? They really take a lot of energy to combat.

Vincent Turner, Boston

Soon Come

Goddammit, where's Jessica Willis? Huh?

Peter Jacoby, Oakland, CA

Comic Possibilities

MUGGER: I'm not sure whether this is a compliment to MUGGER Junior or a sad comment on the state of cartooning today, but the "Idiot Man" strip dated 8/28 is superior in wit (and possibly in draftsmanship) to any other cartoon in your paper. The kid's definitely got a future.

J. Davis, Manhattan

Yeah, and How Do You Explain Adam Sandler?

C.J. Sullivan is right ("Daily Billboard," 8/27): We do need to bring back the drug-addict comics. The fact that Chris Kattan is a star is more sad evidence of the ongoing pussyfication of America. Unfortunately, Kattan is not just some isolated freak, but rather a mirror of a large faction of current young male society. The comic rebel died long ago, as did the backstage sex and drug antics that fueled the SNL fire.

Nick Yulico, San Francisco

Bang the Drum Loudly

TAKI: Great to have your viewpoint on subjects as diverse as Di and the Mideast ("Top Drawer," 8/28). Do you think our government has been taken over by Zionists? This proposed attack on Iraq is being virtually demanded by these so-called hawks. Where does this Defense Policy Review Board get its authority? Why is Richard Perle all over the map beating the drum for this attack? I did combat in Vietnam, and can even remember the radio and newsreels from World War II. I have not seen anything like this "Get Saddam" hysteria since we learned to hate Hitler, Hirohito and Mussolini.

R.T. Carpenter, Panama City, FL

We Hear You, Tracy

MUGGER: Bravo for the courage in your comments about the "Flowers in their hair" attitude of your beloved Red Sox. However, my Astros are a bigger bunch of "Judys." The year that began with such promise has degenerated into just another year. I hate this crap. I think I'll go outside and eat some bugs.

Tracy Meadows, Brenham, TX

They Don't Teach NRA-Support Till the Third Year of J-School

Ignorant journalists have unfortunately done more to shape public perceptions of the NRA than a thousand Charlton Hestons could do in a thousand lifetimes. In "Karen Black Taught Me All I Need to Know" ("Daily Billboard," 8/27) Dan Neel demonstrates why his profession is held in such low regard today. While I hesitate to give too much weight to throwaway filler, his comments certainly resemble the kind of "news analysis" often ridiculed by astute columnists like MUGGER.

Contrary to Neel's inference, the NRA does support background checks. The attempt to link his own misinformation with "two-hundred-proof NRA thinking" falls flat.

What the NRA and its four million members understand (better than most in today's media) is that our rights are endowed by our creator, not by the fair-weather benevolence of municipal, state and federal governments. Half-assed "regulation" is far more deserving of scorn than personal views expressed on bumper stickers.

I realize that a slow economy has taken its toll on publications like New York Press. Neel's writing illustrates that he is a long way from the higher echelon of journalism, and I'm sure he's compensated accordingly. However, with minimal research, Neel could put some distance between himself and the rest of the smart-ass hacks currently in his league.

M. Van Voorhis, Alton, IL

He Likes to Help

Thanks to Alan Cabal for exposing the Jew-loving Florida Jew-dicial system ("Daily Billboard," 8/27). If Mr. Goldstein were a fundamentalist Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Catholic or atheist, he surely would have been shot, tortured, beaten with a rake, crucified or fed to alligators on the spot. Make no mistake about it, Cabal's complaint isn't that Muslims or Puerto Ricans may be treated worse than others in America, it's them danged special Jew privileges that stick in his craw. The fact that Goldstein, unlike Padilla, has no documented ties to our mortal enemy Al Qaeda is totally irrelevant to Cabal. Goldstein is a "favored" Jew, case closed, please refer to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion or Mein Kampf for complete details. But on the plus side, Cabal may be helping to reduce "anti-Semitism" by producing insipid, rabid and easily refutable arguments that make his kind look as unintelligent as the most ignorant neo-Nazi street punk.

Michael Modes, Seattle

Yup

Re Christopher Caldwell's "How 'Bout Them Hawgs?" ("Hill of Beans," 8/28). I was born and raised on Boston's North Shore and I've recently returned (temporarily) after 10 blissful years away. There's no risk of the local culture being destroyed here, because fried clams at Woodman's ain't culture. In fact, there is no culture in this vapid wasteland of yuppies and blue bloods worth saving. People tend to get upset when their region or neighborhood changes "for the worse": Jews move in, blacks start attending the public schools, another Starbucks opens, rich yuppies drive up the rent so high all the locals have to move out. But that's the way it works: everything in this country is for sale. I can't afford to live in my old apartment on 11th and Ave. B because now Alphabet City is safe. But so what? Why would I want to? It's not the place I was drawn to initially?so I'll move on.

The "locals" in prime real estate areas like the North Shore or the East Village have no problem gouging the hell out of college kids or recent arrivals when it comes to rent; but when someone wants to open a coffee shop or (God forbid around here) a bar to get some of that outside money everyone is up in arms.

Up here all the local yuppies are rallying against the new influx of richer outsider yuppies. Those damn outside yuppies drive up the prices around here?oh poor local yuppie, your house is worth 20 times what you paid for it. They all want the same things: all-white schools, a Republican governor, locals-only beaches, blue laws, quaint this, quaint that. It's just that one group is willing to pay more for it. Hopefully they'll all lose out when the slow but steady flow of immigrants to this area (and their kickass Brazilian and Cambodian restaurants) eventually help create a new North Shore that is a little bit less of a yuppie wet dream. In the meantime I'll save my sympathy for those people whose houses and apartments are worth less than what they paid for them in the 1970s because their areas have gone to hell.

Jas Maestranzi, Manchester, MA

Big Red Mike

MUGGER: Michelangelo Signorile wrote, "...As irreverent and provocative as MWO is, however, everything on the site is accurate..." ("The Gist," 8/28).

Is this guy insane, or what? Nothing published on the Web is 100 percent accurate, and in the case of what MWO puts out, 99 percent of the slop is hyper-biased editorial self-therapy.

And yet again he wrote, "...But one thing that is absolutely true of MWO is that you won't find anything even remotely close, in terms of an incitement to violence, to the rants of Ann Coulter and her legions..."

Oh really?! And what would you call someone who cannot accept the outcome of the 2000 presidential election, and calls for a subversive government overthrow by constantly declaring that "...the individual occupying the most powerful position in the U.S. is not a democratically elected leader..." and then proudly declares his association with another fanatical leftist, www.bartcop.com, whose site contains some of the most politically charged, junta-promoting propaganda published on the Web to date (and that's not including the forum posts from his loyal legion of anarchist members)? May I suggest the selection of another journalist to write for your fine publication?

Edward Yachimiak, Bartlett, IL

Signorile, OK!

Re Michelangelo Signorile's "Who Is Promoting Violence?" It was excellent and accurate. And it's incredibly refreshing to see some balance in the media.

Samantha Dent, Tulsa

McIrked

Tim Lane's "Intersection" source got his facts a bit scrambled ("New York City," 8/21). McGurk's Suicide Hall, as it came to be known, was at 295 Bowery, just north of Houston, but the saloon didn't serve poison drinks. In fact, it was too modern for words: it featured singing waiters, the first electric sign on the Bowery and at least one notoriously crooked waiter: "Short-Change Charlie." On the other hand, it had the most ferocious bouncer on the Bowery, "Eat 'Em Up Jack" McManus, and waiters trained in crowd control in a way that would do the "Special Events" division of NYPD proud.

The crowd-control tactics became necessary in 1899, when a wave of copycat suicides started at McGurk's. During its course, at least 12 used-up streetwalkers killed themselves at McGurk's. These young women, some just girls of 15 and 16 years of age, all chose to burn their guts out with phenol (carbolic acid, a disinfectant) purchased from a pharmacy just a few doors away. After the first suicide, at the first sign of a suicide attempt the waiters at McGurk's would gather into a flying-wedge formation, charge the suicide and toss her out onto the street, to expire or recover as she might, as long as she was off McGurk's property. Naturally, the press whipped up a tremendous hue and cry to close McGurk's, but the saloon flourished.

When McGurk founded the saloon in 1885, he was already a member of the Tammany Hall General Committee. By 1899, he was too well connected to the Democratic machine that ruled the city to be closed: the miserable deaths of a dozen streetwalkers did nothing but make his saloon all the more successful. Then a 16-year-old runaway-turned-streetwalker named Emma Hartig tried to drink carbolic acid at McGurk's but survived the attempt. A Republican administration calling for reform came to power, and commissions were appointed to investigate municipal corruption. Miss Hartig became a star witness before the Mazet Commission, which used her testimony to great effect: in 1902 Mayor Low's reform administration shuttered McGurk's Suicide Hall for good. McGurk moved on to a career in real estate. Some things never change. 295 Bowery is still standing.

Ludwig Vogel, Manhattan

Just Can't Let Go of Bubba

Please tell Alexander Cockburn to return to the days of Bill Clinton if he wants to see people muzzled ("Wild Justice," 8/28). More than one person was arrested because they dared bare signs of disagreement, or yelled out at him. Go back. Read and learn.

Angie Bonham, Las Vegas

That'll Do, Taki

In attempting to expose Israel's evil genius in the art of "disinformation" ("Top Drawer," 8/28), Taki illustrates the musings of a first-rate paranoid conspiracy theorist instead. (Look at that headline!)

First he tells us that "Israeli agents within the United States government suckered King Hussein to join" with Egypt against Israel in their disastrous 1967 war. Then he refers to his "wonderful Egyptian, Mohamed Sid-Ahmed" on how Abu Nidal "was an Israeli agent."

There's no need for evidence in any of this. A penchant for wild speculation and a viciously one-sided attitude will do fine.

Ralph Seliger, Manhattan

Sleeping with the Enemy

MUGGER: Booo hooo, the Times doesn't give New York Press or you its due. And why should it, when your paper is a mere pimple on the landscape of journalistic integrity or importance? You incessantly whine in the column about the Times' editorializing about Iraq. Too bad. I'm glad that they are pointing out the opposition to war within the Republican ranks. I notice you don't mention Dick Armey. Mischaracterizing Henry Kissinger might be a good idea, since the old war criminal is impossible to understand and speaks gibberish anyway.

Most significantly, you and the administration's loony fringe who support this war still have to come up with reasons why this war is needed. Don't give us that crap that Saddam has chemical weapons and will use them. As has been reported, we knew Saddam had them in the war between Iraq and Iran and we let him use them, since we were so afraid of Iran. The enemy is not Iraq but Saudi Arabia, but since they have all that nice oil we do not want to antagonize them. No, Saddam was our buddy when we needed him, and we dropped him when he was of no use to us, as was true of the Afghans who fought against the Soviets?the Taliban! We get in bed with some very bad people, what do you expect? That they will play nice forever? Not gonna happen. Lay off the Times. They may fuck up with typos, yes, but they have a lot more on the ball than your pipsqueak of a paper will ever have.

Murton Edelstein, Manhattan

Duly Noted, Bruce

Taki: You may be interested to hear that Mohamed Sid-Ahmed has a regular column in the Egyptian paper Al-Ahram ("Top Drawer," 8/28). In fact, I think he may be an editor there.

Bruce Dodds, Newton, MA

Leftward Ho's

MUGGER: Fifteen years ago when I was working at Walt Disney, my boss subscribed to Time. One article upset her so much (because it was so slanted to the left) she wrote them a letter about it. They replied (I don't remember exactly what they wrote but essentially) that they were a liberal magazine, proud of it and if she didn't like it, she could cancel her subscription (which she promptly did).

S.A. Blum, Boca Raton, FL

Cabal of Anti-Semites

Reading Taki's column ("Top Drawer," 8/28) reminds me of the old joke about the Jew who reads an anti-Semitic paper because it "makes him feel important." Boy, is that true here. Never mind that Israel, fearful of opening a third front, begged Hussein not to get involved in the Six Day War. No, Taki, based on an old rumor from a lone "friend" (interestingly, Taki doesn't even know whether he's alive or not), informs us that the Israelis wanted more fighting. Or, rather, "Israeli" agents, who, of course, control the U.S. government, engineered the whole thing. Jews control the world, unconcerned about even their own in their quest for power? That's a new one.

Naturally, the Arabs are perfectly peaceful people who never engage in wars or kill their own unless it's set up by Israel (I'm surprised he even concedes that Abu Nidal was killed by Iraq). Or perhaps they are not competent enough to have started any wars on their own, and thus Taki's view of them as inferiors allows him to excuse them of all crimes. In any event, his anti-Semitism is becoming more grating as time goes on. Taki: You might as well drop those sly references to the "Big Bagel," and just call it "Hymietown." I think we've all caught on.

Then again, I suppose I shouldn't be concerned about anti-Semitism. After all, Alan Cabal ("Daily Billboard," 8/27) has informed us that "anti-Semites" (his minimizing quotes) are rational people with logical grievances. Once those complaints are addressed, why, they'll drop their hatred of Jews altogether. In Taki's case, however, such a solution would seem to involve removing Jews from the U.S. and Israel (and possibly the face of the Earth) and resurrecting Jesus. Although Taki probably wouldn't like his religion.

Nathan Lamm, Flushing

He's Ultrabilious

MIKE SIGNORILE: You just happen to mention the one person who is apt to set off my Crohn's disease with massive bouts of nausea in your column this week ("The Gist," 8/28). Ann Coulter has got to be one of the nastiest and pathologically myopic persons currently wearing the badge of journalism. Although I respect the right of anyone to voice her opinions, no matter how contrary they may be to mine, I cringe when I read the depth of this woman's meanspiritedness. I publish an online magazine that deals primarily with Jewish heritage, lifestyle and politics. On that site, I constantly present articles and information that are in total opposition to my way of thinking. It is my belief that people cannot make up their minds intelligently on any issue without hearing more than one side of the story. However, I draw the line when it comes to people like Ann the C. There is a huge difference between voicing an intelligent and well thought-out opinion, and spewing forth hatefulness and bile. Anyhow, thanks for another outstanding column.

Michael D. Fein, Montreal, Quebec

Down Low in Ohio

MUGGER: For someone whose paper gives a prominent place to Alexander Cockburn, you should know what "low" is (8/28). So when you attack what is "low" at the New York Post, we are all ears. It takes one to know one. You must think that it is your monopoly to give us the lowest. Are you upset with the competition? Not to worry. It is almost impossible to go as "low" as your Cockburn does. I guess everyone should have some kind of expertise. Yours seems to be in promoting and identifying the "low" in journalists, who have the lowest approval rating rivaling used-car dealers.

Michelle Abbott, Bay Village, OH

Scallion Rap

I loved Christopher Caldwell's delicious derision of Andrew Cuomo's "brave" stand against all things bad, "even the KKK" ("Hill of Beans," 8/21). No doubt in his next campaign commercial Cuomo will boldly announce his firm opposition to famine, pestilence and child kidnappings. I'll bet he's not even afraid to speak out against cruelty to small animals.

Peter Scallion, Manhattan

Dash Slap

MUGGER: Good article (8/21), and if The New York TImes reduced its columns' verbiage it would still not be politically acceptable to me, but it would contain fewer mistakes.

Marty Dash, Walnut Creek, CA

Selective Memory

I guess Alexander Cockburn forgot about how the Clintons would sic the IRS on anyone who criticized them ("Wild Justice," 8/28). I guess he forgot about Hillary's goons working over the NYC crowd on St. Patrick's Day when they dared to boo her in 2000.

Dana Marra, Smithtown, NY

Whattya Know?

MUGGER: Yesterday on KSFO radio in San Francisco, Bill Gertz, military and intelligence correspondent for the Washington Times, said that in the 70s the CIA began individually approaching scores of Abu Nidal's men openly, on the street, asking them out loud if they'd spy for them against Nidal. Soon word got back to Nidal that where there's smoke etc., so he began wiping out his own men, including a mass execution of 175 of these "moderates," thus cheaply and easily destroying his own organization. Taki fell for it too.

Michael Smith, San Francisco

Mooove Along

Taki: Getting fired is not the same thing as getting arrested. If this lady can't come up with a less offensive remark, maybe it is time to put her out to pasture.

Robert Abrams, Yonkers, NY

This Just In

MUGGER: Nice to hear you weigh in on the baseball mess, however selectively. The good: competitive balance is a canard. (I'm a WSU football fan. They will never win a national championship. And the Nebraska athletic department will not be sharing revenue or pay a luxury tax anytime soon.) Dragging Sept. 11 into the middle of this is shameful, no matter who does it. The bad: calling Fehr a thug, and worse, suggesting he's surpassed Selig when it comes to destroying the game. (Selig and his gang of eight?or is it nine?continue to view the negotiation as a zero sum game. Winner take all. The union, believe it or not, has made the first important compromise by agreeing to a luxury tax of any variety. That's why we're arguing over numbers now, and not the concept itself as we did in the past. And if competitive balance is a canard?and check out the NBA to see how a salary cap, soft though it is, changes nothing in this regard?how is Selig's dishonest position more harmful than Fehr's intractability? The only good deal is one that leaves both sides grumbling over a compromise. Sadly, owners like Moore and Glass, having driven their franchises into a ditch, are only too happy to take the game with them. (And Bud is behind the wheel.) Ballpark beer and pretzels are too expensive and the fans suffer as a result. (Boo hoo. Compare baseball ticket prices to those in any other professional sport. Not to mention college football. And those prices are set by the market and have absolutely nothing to do with the current negotiation. We drink beer, the price remains constant. We don't buy beer. It drops.) Finally, I got to the end of the piece and had no idea where you stand, save for a little plague on both their houses, which is fine for inebriate sportswriters, but not so fine for a baseball fan like yourself. Oh, and congratulations on the best Red Sox gate in years. Hey, wait?I thought the game was bankrupt.

Harley Peyton, Los Angeles