Sour Notes

IT'S ONE THING for the media to be critical of public officials. It's our job, after all, to keep an eye on the people who are making the decisions that affect our daily lives. If they do something stupid, something that will really mess things up, there should be screaming headlines about it.

It's another thing, however, to be so consumed with hatred for a public official that you feel compelled to pillory them even when they do something halfway decent.

Take the case of the Post and the mayor. We're all for crucifying that whiny little killjoy whenever possible, but the Post's response to the mayor's noise-reduction proposal was comically over the top.

The Mayor's trying to silence Mister Softee!, they began screaming in the lede paragraph of their account of Bloomberg's press conference. He wants to outlaw the jingle! And barking dogs will be illegal, too!

They interviewed Mister Softee drivers and corporate representatives, all of whom agreed that such a thing would be bad.

The following day, the shrill harangue continued, with a story about how most members of the City Council are dead-set against any effort to ban the ice cream trucks from broadcasting the annoying tune. They even forced the mayor to admit that he himself enjoys an occasional ice cream. Thing is, the councilmembers they interviewed didn't seem quite as rabid about the issue as the Post. Probably because it never was much of an issue to begin with until they turned it into one.

The mayor's press release concerning the proposal never mentioned Mister Softee. Nor did any of the other news outlets covering the initial press conference. They did later, but only after the Post got the ball rolling. In reality, the new plan is aimed at construction sites, night clubs and car alarms more than anything else. We get the impression the Post thought too many people would like that idea of quieter evenings, and so needed to come up with something that would make Bloomberg look like Mayor No Fun again.

For the record, last month alone, 243 New Yorkers called 311 to complain about the Mister Softee jingle. Over the past year, it's close to 1200. Even if this were the centerpiece of the noise-reduction proposal, we don't think too many people would get all bent out of shape about it.