America's oldest continuously pointless newspaper

Indignity Vol. 3, No. 179

THE WORST THING WE READ™

The New York Post Is Just Another Poster Now

OVER THE WEEKEND, the ongoing vague reports about the FBI taking an interest in alleged dealings between New York Mayor Eric Adams and the nation Turkey sharpened into something vivid and specific. Friday came the news that FBI agents had confiscated "at least two cell phones and an iPad" from the mayor in cinematic and personally embarrassing fashion:

The agents approached the mayor after an event in Manhattan on Monday evening and asked his security detail to step away, a person with knowledge of the matter said. They climbed into his S.U.V. with him and, pursuant to a court-authorized warrant, took his devices, the person said.

Two days later came the first real account of what the FBI might be looking into: 

Federal authorities are investigating whether Mayor Eric Adams, weeks before his election two years ago, pressured New York Fire Department officials to sign off on the Turkish government’s new high-rise consulate in Manhattan despite safety concerns with the building, three people with knowledge of the matter said...

Mr. Adams’ intervention paved the way for the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose fondness for massive building projects was well known in Turkey, to preside over the grand opening of the $300 million, 35-story tower on his September 2021 visit to New York for the U.N. General Assembly, despite numerous flaws in its fire safety system, according to the people familiar with the matter and city records. 

It felt like a great New York tabloid story: the ethically slippery mayor, a powerful foreign strongman, New York's Bravest, a luxurious highrise that might be a firetrap. But it was the New York Times that was breaking the news. The Daily News gamely gave chase, with Saturday's front page wood screaming "FEDS GRAB ERIC'S PHONE." 

And the New York Post? The big city's merciless, swaggering scandal sheet? The Post went sniveling in Adams' defense, complaining that the story existed at all. "Diss Honor," a secondary headline package at the top of the page fumed. "Feds seize mayor's phone—was Biden team behind public humiliation?"