ONLY IN THE NEW YORK POST, #45605: Yesterday, the Post ran, as a supposedly serious news story, a poll of the Most Hated New Yorkers. It contained the usual suspects (Trump, Lizzie Grubman, Mayor Bloomberg, Steinbrenner, Sharpton, etc.), and coming in at #1 is hated hotelier Leona Helmsley.
Later on we find out why: the poll was actually commissioned by Helmsley's lawyers, in order to prove that she is in fact the most hated person in the Big Apple. Helmsley, you see, is facing an upcoming lawsuit, and the purpose of the poll was to show that she can't get a fair trial in New York- an enterprising legal strategy, to say the least, one which involved leaking the questionable questionairre to the Post.
How is this a news story? How can such a poll, which was taken by one of the participants in order to sway a judge, possibly be considered legitimate, let alone scientific? Besides, it can't even be right: Helmsley, for the most part, hasn't been in the spotlight for a decade- how can she still be relevant enough to be hated is enough of a mystery. She's not even America's most hated Helmsley anymore.