Left: screen capture of nydailynews.com featuring Jacob Osterhout’s photo of Lonestar Bar owner Tony Gentile. Right: Screenshot of brooklyndaily.com featuring Elizabeth Graham’s “tough guy” pictures of Gentile and Middle Eastern Halal Cart owner Sammy Kassen.
In the saga of the 5th Avenue food cart wars, perspective can be everything. A recent Daily News piece, which reported on the recent immersion of public officials into the matter, took a decidedly different approach than the News Corp-owned CNG publications Brooklyn Daily and Brooklyn Paper – an angle best illustrated by… illustrations.
The Daily News, which is owned by the Tribune Company and run by Mortimer Zuckerman, seemed to handle the story with a certain amount of sensitivity for both sides, without sugarcoating the situation.
While the News’ Simone Weichselbaum made sure to include charges of racism and xenophobia put forward by the Halal food cart operators and their supporters, [She first mentions racism about a quarter of the way through the piece], they chose not to illustrate the article with confrontational tough guy poses a la CNG’s Elizabeth Graham – instead opting for warm and fuzzy photo ops -which aren’t necessarily a bad thing.
The News went with a rather heart-warming mom and pop pose of Lone Star Bar owners Tony and Tracy Blaise-Gentile by photog Jacob E. Osterhout. The News could have easily vilified Tony Gentile. Instead, they portrayed him as a family man.
The meat and potatoes of the latest chapter in the struggle between restaurant owners and ostracized Halal food cart operators – with both sides simply trying to make a living, is the injection of local elected officials – namely City Councilman Vincent Gentile [no relation to Tony Gentile], who suggested the city create a Vendor Review Panel to help mediate the situation.
“It’s been simmering for a long time, but it has reached a pitch,” Councilman Vincent Gentile (D- Bay Ridge) told the News. “It is a citywide issue,” Gentile said. “A lot of small businesses are hurting…They have to compete with the food vendors.”
May the cooler heads of logical locals quoted by each news organization – including residents Slavik Cucosh and Michael Daly – prevail.
Photographs in this article © NYDailyNews.com and © News Community Newspapers Holdings, Inc.