Media watch: Find Better \u2018Victims\u2019!<\/p>\n
The New York Times just published \u201ca head-scratcher of a tear-jerker,\u201d snarks Becket Adams at The Hill<\/a>: It \u201ctried to frame as a sympathetic character an illegal immigrant whose acts of identity theft, multiple drunk driving convictions, and three deportation orders have made life a living hell for his victims.\u201d The New Yorker, meanwhile, offered \u201canother whopper,\u201d about how \u201cOrville Etoria, a Jamaican national who\u2019d lived in New York for nearly 50 years, was shackled and put on an ICE flight to Eswatini\u201d \u2014 yet he\u2019s a convicted murderer. \u201cSob stories aren\u2019t good journalism,\u201d but if you\u2019re \u201cgoing to engage in such gross emotional manipulation,\u201d then \u201cat least do us the favor of finding a victim worthy of sympathy.\u201d<\/p>\n Central Park beat: Don\u2019t Promote E-bikes, Ban \u2019Em<\/p>\n When planning Central Park, Frederick Law Olmstead envisioned a place where people could escape \u201cthe bustle and jar of the streets,\u201d but \u201cvisitors today dodge e-bikes, delivery vehicles, and pedicabs at every turn,\u201d laments Yael Bar Tur at City Journal<\/a>. Worse: The Central Park Conservancy means to \u201callow e-bikes inside the park,\u201d remove \u201ctraffic signals,\u201d and turn the park drive \u201cinto an e-vehicle and delivery-bike superhighway.\u201d In its own safety survey, \u201cthe most common concern was \u2018speeding bikes and e-bikes\u2019 (31 percent),\u201d yet the Conservancy is still eying \u201cbanning horse and carriage rides\u201d to make room for \u201cmore hazardous forms of transportation.\u201d Don\u2019t destroy \u201ca historic industry\u201d; look at \u201cstronger traffic enforcement, fewer e-vehicles, and banning delivery vehicles from Central Park altogether.\u201d<\/p>\n Culture critic: RIP to the Unmatched Stoppard<\/p>\n \u201cTom Stoppard, whose death at age 88 was announced on Saturday,\u201d was \u201cundoubtedly the most intellectually daring, historically inquisitive and encyclopedically knowledgeable\u201d modern playwright, muses The Wall Street Journal\u2019s Charles Isherwood<\/a>. \u201cBorn in Czechoslovakia to Jewish parents who had to leave the country during the rise of the Nazis,\u201d he \u201cultimately arrived in England, where he established himself as an audacious new talent with \u2018Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead\u2019 in 1966.\u201d Then came \u201ca corpus of dramas and comedies that married thought and feeling with dazzling dexterity,\u201d earning him \u201cfive Tony Awards for best play (a record) and an Oscar.\u201d He was the rare playwright (or artist, period) who managed \u201cto sustain the high quality of [his] work virtually from the beginning of [his] career until its conclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPost Editorial Board<\/p>\n Liberal: Now They Question \u2018Legal Authority\u2019<\/p>\n