TheAgitator.com
Professional Man on the Street
Friday, June 13th, 2003Loathe as am to credit Ann Coulter for anything, this bit of digging she did is quite funny.
When the New York Times needs to find a man in the street to interview they never have to look very far - they have one on tap suitable for every occasion.Thanks to a sharp-eyed Ann Coulter, one Greg Packer has been outed as the media’s designated man in the street - a role Mr. Packer has played more than 100 times, Coulter discovered.
His latest assignment for the Times was to be the average man in the street in line waiting to buy Mrs. Clinton’s newest work of fiction.
Wrote Coulter, author of the forthcoming blockbuster “Treason”: “Another average individual eager to get Hillary’s book was Greg Packer, who was the centerpiece of the New York Times’ “man on the street” interview about Hillary-mania. After being first in line for an autographed book at the Fifth Avenue Barnes & Noble, Packer gushed to the Times: ‘I’m a big fan of Hillary and Bill’s. I want to change her mind about running for president. I want to be part of her campaign.’
“It was easy,” Coulter noted “for the Times to spell Packer’s name right because he is apparently the entire media’s designated “man on the street” for all articles ever written. He has appeared in news stories more than 100 times as a random member of the public. Packer was quoted on his reaction to military strikes against Iraq; he was quoted at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, the Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Veterans’ Day Parade. He was quoted at not one - but two - New Year’s Eve celebrations at Times Square. He was quoted at the opening of a new “Star Wars” movie, at the opening of an H&M clothing store on Fifth Avenue and at the opening of the viewing stand at Ground Zero. He has been quoted at Yankees games, Mets games, Jets games - even getting tickets for the Brooklyn Cyclones. He was quoted at a Clinton fund-raiser at Alec Baldwin’s house in the Hamptons and the pope’s visit to Giants stadium.”
If the Times and the rest of the New York media don’t pay this guy, he’s getting short changed.
I want to find this guy. He’d be a great interview.
Reminds me of the Onion “what do you think” section. Same 6 pictures every week.
This is far more than just “funny,” this is insipid. If they can’t be honest even about finding an average person on the street, I can only imagine the depth of their lies. Radley, do you really think the NYT is the best paper in the world? Sounds more like the Matrix to me. Come children, believe the illusion!
This really isn’t funny at all; this is scary.
“If the Times and the rest of the New York media don’t pay this guy, he’s getting short changed.”
… erm, wouldn’t that make him an employee, and no longer the “man on the street”??
Anyway, what’s wrong with having a “man on the street” to hand if you know you’re going to need one… it’s not like they’ve been passing him off as a “senior political source” or some such similar….. is it?
To Paul Tweed: I hear an immense amount of talk about truth in the blogworld, about who’s lying regarding the government, media, etc. The NYT feeds tens of millions of minds every day and you wave off this charade as if it’s nothing. At least the term “senior political source” infers something. To interview a man as if his opinion is random when he’s just a Hillary Clinton humpa humpa wannabe is criminal compared to that. Radley, you always talk about truth - isn’t this more than funny? This is subversive. The NYT is a fraud.
Talk about being at the right place at the right time.
Ever notice how the Onion’s “man on the street” always includes a Systems Analyst?
I’m confused. . . are we at war with Eastasia or Eurasia? I’ll ask Mr. Packer.
Does Mr Packer really exist or is he just a fake name they assign to fake quotes?
i’m betting on fake name and fake quotes.
or they get him into events like a fundraiser at alec baldwin’s hampton mansion, which precludes him from being a man on the street; it makes him their man on the street. not just anyone random gets invited to such events.
either way, it’s bad.
I’m betting it’s a fake name with real quotes so they can use them without getting a waiver or some such legal contortion
Tasty Morsels from “Hit and Run”
Reason magazine’s weblog is a really good place to find interesting news stories, exactly the sort of stories that, until…
It looks like Packer is a real person, and it’s very possible that all of the stories quoting him were perfectly accurate.
http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/studentwork/cns/2002-07-07/632.asp
Given that the stories were written by a number of different reporters at different papers, it doesn’t surprise me that nobody noticed that this guy was all over the place.
ok, i agree, then, this is just funny.
Ever notice you never see Greg Packer and David Manning in the same room together…?
This really isn’t funny at all; this is scary.
It’s not scary because we already know this sort of thing goes down.
The NY Times passes off political activists as “average” people all the time.
Looked up Greg Packer’s federal campaign contributions.
Nothing save for a fellow from Michigan.
I think he’s a guy having fun at the NYT’s expense.
Which is OK.
Even if this is a “real” guy there’s a HUGE selection bias at work here. If he’s been quoted in enough stories and interacted with enough reporters, then he might (a) be so predictable in his viewpoints that his value as a random man on the street is NILL; or worse (b) be so enamored with seeing his name in the paper that he’ll spout out the NYT party line just to be sure he gets some print.
Neither possibility is particularly comforting. In fact, this makes me view all of the NYT’s “random guy on the street” interviews with the same level of skepticism and disdain as I had when watching some poor, scared to death, Iraqi loving it up about Hussien prior to the dictator being deposed.
And at the New York Times, for SHAME!
To be fair to the NYT, they’ve used Packer as a interviewee three times since 2001. Meanwhile, the New York Post has used him 12 times since 1998.
uh…I live down here in Knoxville, I got one question for you all up there in NY. Just HOW many people live in N.Y, Ny. again? That’s what I thought. This Packer guy is either an employee or a famed crazed nut.
uh…I live down here in Knoxville, I got one question for you all up there in NY. Just HOW many people live in N.Y, Ny. again? That’s what I thought. This Packer guy is either an employee or a famed crazed nut.
Times bashing…continued
This piece from the agitator, shows how deeply, and for how long the NYTimes has been cutting corners in their reporting. Conservative crusher Ann Coulter originally reported how the NYTimes has been using a canned ‘man on the street’ for…
He’s the latter–he told Newsday that he tries his hardest to be at the front of every long line to meet a star, and he makes a point of introducing himself to every reporter he sees.
Three times? The NYT has obviously been subverted by the vast left-wing conspiracy that opposes Fox News’ attempts to bring unbiased coverage to the public.
[sneer]
I didn’t want to have to take anything Coulter writes seriously. Fortunately, her string of lies and distortions seems unbroken.
To John,
SNEER in caps.
“He was quoted at a Clinton fund-raiser at Alec Baldwin’s house in the Hamptons”
wow…this guy is everywhere…
Why are you ‘loathe’ to give Ann credit?
I think she is very entertainning.
picture of mr. packer at
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/poll_newyear020101.html
he’s also listed in multiple abc news stories
his ability to make it into stories is his ridiculous desire to be listed in news stories and, the 1. laziness of the media - any database usage could prevent him from being listed in more than one story 2. the media being arrogant - I could see him being listed on each station and newspaper once, but multiple times - the photographers and “reporters” are familiar with his face and know he’ll give a quote they want, they didn’t think readers/viewers would catch on.
This is probably the same kind of pseudonym used in the movie industry. When a director wants to be officially removed from the credits of a film, the name “Alan Smithee”, is subsituted. This is a standard pseudonym, that any “insider” will recognize as an inside the industry tounge-in-cheek joke for a work that no one wants to take credit for, presumably because it is so bad.
I’d suspect Mr. Packer is the same kinda thing– a inside the industry standard psuedonym signifying a made up quote, or a conglomeration of unattributable quotes.
Never the less, Hollywood is entertainment. the NYT isnt supposed to be, and should work to a higher standard.
Jason Blair, you listening?
Greg Packer is a real person & a fine human being at that. I have socialized with Mr. Packer on many occasions and find him to be a good friend to everyone he meets. He is also a big hit with the ladies.
“Fudge” Packer better not be first on my line…I’ll make him feel my pain.
“Packer better not be first on my line…I’ll make him feel my pain.”
Here’s the funny thing: He was!
http://www.timeswatch.org/articles/2004/0623.asp#3
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