Neither more nor less

Carl crawling in from the rain to abase himself to a small business owner while FOX news watches!
Somewhere above us Ronald Reagan is laughing ;)
 

I keep wanting to make a joke about the volunteers looking like the cast of Glee, but anyone who steps into the arena of "doing" instead of talking should be above reproach
 

I can assure you that these kids are more talented, interesting and smarter than the cast of Glee.
 

Great coverage and wonderful theme.
 

Spoke to the crew at Monday's event and they mentioned that John Stossel's special "What's Great About America" is meant to air in May.

Should be a great show. Hopefully, Ray makes the cut!
 

Cool - I look forward to seeing this. By May, let's hope there's been a positive resolution to Ray's problems.
 

So Karl the Commie is down on his luck? Maybe if he understood the beuty of a free society and how hard working,decent people like Ray are what make this country great,he would'nt be in the situation he's in.What's Ray,in his 80's? Still working hard against all odds,trying to support himself.And Karl here,deadbeat that he is,with his hand out,complaining he did'nt get cheese on his fries,and smelling of cat pee.I know a good wine-bar he can mooch from.... ;-)
 

Karl (the "Troll") does it again. Not only does he feign a mental "disability" (not much of an act, really) in order to get FREE money from the govt he rails against, not only does he reside in a squat in a FREE apartment he obtained by terrorizing the kind soul who took pity on him into leaving, not only does this mooching deformed parasite worm his way into every soup line, bread line, Food Not Bombs line and anywhere else he can get FREE food, he now has the balls to take advantage of Ray's kindness -- on camera, no less!!

This lumpen piece of shit thrives on the blood, sweat, and energy of others, but he gives NOTHING in return, except his waste product.

In any other scene, this sawed-odd runt would've been run out of town long ago....
 

Speaking as someone who knows how TV gets made, letting Fox come in the henhouse (so to speak) and gather up an entire day's worth of footage could be a decision everyone ends up regretting.

John Stossel is cut from the same cloth as Glen Beck, and his "documentary" is likely going to be a take-down of the Obama Administration intercut with emotional scenes of honest, hardworking people like Ray and his volunteers.

Or it could end up as part of a Bill O'Reilly piece on how immigrants are responsible for all kinds of heinous crimes: "Ray says he's just a hardworking shopkeeper, but he's REALLY an immigrant who's not even named Ray, who doesn't pay taxes, and who runs an un-licensed store where junkies and vagrants congregate, scaring the few new homeowners who've dared to try and rehabiliate the Lower East Side."

Of course, maybe you agree with that. Or maybe you believe that the Fox producer won't do that.

But: I'm willing to bet that when this footage ends up on the air, you and everyone else will wind up disappointed.
 

Why does everyone think Carl smells like cat pee? Maybe cat pee smells like Carl.....makes you think man...
 

DefChef! Take a deep breath and relax your paranoia is killing you. Get back on the meds.
Def....Chef? Are you the restaurant guy from 10 street who got caught touching his pee pee on the R train 3 years ago ?
 

I, too, cringed when I heard Fox News was spending the day with Ray. Does he understand what Fox News stands for? I hope I am wrong to be worried and that they paint him in a good light but I can also see them digging for dirt and going after him for being an illegal immigrant or something. It is the network of Bill O'Reilly and his cronies and I don't see them having much empathy for Ray let alone us East Village types.
 

East Village types? What is an East Village type? Judgemental liberal douchebags? Your probably the kind of person that gives money to the bums in TS Park and then calls the police when they are drinking beers on the stoop to your building. You dont even know what fox is doing about Ray, yet you judge it because Bill OReily has a show on that channel? Or because they would dare ask a question about Ray's Legal status, which YOU brought up. Good job throwing the poor guy under the bus. If you saw Fox 5 news, they supported Ray and showed that it was a staple of the East Village. Whats with these AnonymASS!
 

Look, I hope Fox does something positive, but you just never know with Fox, especially with a contrarian like John Stossel, who could very well be like, "Hey, Ray isn't the only business hurting right now. Why should he get all this help? Why should we feel sorry for him when there are people with families to support?" Personally, I wouldn't have let anyone from Fox walk in my door. Believe me, the network of George Bush and his cronies isn't down with the East Village. But I know Ray hopes the publicity will help. I hope for his sake they do a glowing and positive piece and bring more customers into his store.
 

i'd say i'd be more inclined to be wary of fox news and agree with DefChef.

also, not defending Karl but i'm fairly certain he's not in his "free" apartment right now but in a rented place uptown. also, his apartment isn't "free" - he will pay a substantial (yet hopefully not market value) rent when/if he moves back in to his former apartment.
 

Fox has so far done a very good job of covering Ray's problems and of presenting Ray favorably .

We have to ask if Fox has been willing to cover Ray twice why haven't any of the other so much more politically correct media giants bothered to cover Ray even once .


Further , the Fox producer that was in charge Saturday night was born and raised on 3rd st and still lives on 3rd street and swore to us that he'll never leave the neighborhood .
 

Thanks for the info, Bob. It makes me feel better knowing that the Fox producer is from the neighborhood. I have another friend from the East Village who works there. He hates the network's politics. But it is a job. Fox is being infiltrated and that's good for people like us and Ray!
 

Hey with a little luck,MSNBC will send down that lesbian Chris Matthews to interview Ray! ;-) Nee-uk,nee-uk,nee-yawww!
 

Haley, the admin of the "Save Say's" Facebook group just sent this around from the Fox News producer:

---------------------------------------

Subject: fox news coverage

Hello:

I’m the Fox News producer who was shooting at Ray’s this past Saturday. Because of the rain, we weren’t able to get good video of the volunteers skateboarding, on scooters, etc.

Because no rain is expected this coming Saturday, March 20, we’d like to come back and shoot some video of you skateboarding, biking, on scooters, etc. in the daylight. We’d also like to interview as many of the volunteers as possible.

So I’d appreciate if you would pass on my request to all volunteers: Would you be able to come to Ray’s any time between 2PM and 5PM on Saturday, March 20?

Please reply to this email or call me at the numbers below if you can make it. I’d appreciate if you would let me know if you can come by tomorrow, Friday.

Many thanks,
Frank
 

And an update:

-----------------

Subject: sorry - more

Hello again:

Sorry for adding confusion to this…

We’ve discussed it here and decided we’d better stick to videotaping the night deliveries as they happen. It will better match what we shot last week at Ray’s. So we will now plan to be at Ray’s at 8P until 12M or so, and hopefully will get some great skateboarding, biking, and scooter deliveries.

And we’d still like to interview as many volunteers as can come by.

Thanks and sorry again for the mix up.

Frank
 

I think DefChef concerns are legitimate. And, unfortunately, I think Bob is confusing local Fox News reporters and local freelance producers with the Fox of John Stossel. There are plenty of okay local Fox reporters and, yup, a lot of really nice video savvy producers live in the 'hood. Unfortunately, however, the odds of a story like Ray's being presented in a legitimate fashion on a big Fox show, like John Stossel's, are slim. They will take all that nice local footage and the lovely stuff that smart people shot along the way and twist it whatever way they want. I will not be surprised at all if they push the illegal immigrant, junkie, punk, local criminals, etc. angle hard. I will not be surprised when LES Jewels ends up the anti-star of the show, the landlord is the hero, and the take-away is something along the lines of what DefChef suggested: Old hippie junkies, some of them communists, are causing the recession in the EV and supporting a illegal alien who runs an illegal shop.

The guys shooting the scooter footage may swear up and down that they working in good faith and that, really, they all want the best for Ray. But...but...those guys are not going to be doing the editing and scripting for Stossel's show.

Ask around. There are plenty of guys who work for Fox in the 'hood. I can think of three who live on Ave. with window facing the park. They have their stories.
 

Anonymous , we are not confusing anything with anything . We actually have been around the TV world on and off for many years .We know what local productions and national productions are and how producers work .We are not at all naive concerning how the system works .

All we have said is that so far Fox has done more for Ray's cause than any of the other broadcast media giants that you seem to believe would have more in common with Ray's and this community's shared cause .

Also if the producer is correct, some of the content from Ray's will soon be on the local news at Fox .
 

While FOX "news" is generally untrustable and unreliable, known for it's ambush-style reportage (pretending to be coming from a sympathetic point of view and then turning the tables on you when it comes time to broadcast), it is telling that no other mainstream media has done anything near the coverage given Ray by the LES bloggers (Neither More Nor Less, EV Grieve, Jeremiah's Vanishing New York, Slum Goddess) and The SHADOW.
 

...so far Fox has done more for Ray's cause...

Yup, and so far, it's all good as far as I can tell.

...other broadcast media giants...

Nah, my trust in media giants doesn't extend much beyond, oh, EV Grieve and NMNL. I'm sure the non-Fox media wouldn't do much better.

It helps having a local crew and lots of attentive friends but all you have to is turn on the national Fox news to see that they stand stories like Ray's upside down a couple times an hour. I still think it's worth being wary of John Stossel and Fox.