Posted on 06/16/2003 10:51:48 AM PDT by Pharmboy
The designated man in the street for the New York media these days is a middle-aged highway repairman from Long Island who, depending on who is listening, calls himself Gregory Packer, Greg Packer or sometimes simply Greg.
In the last two years alone, Mr. Packer of Huntington has provided the common person's perspective on an array of city happenings, ranging from an 'N Sync concert to a New York Jets playoff game. He has weighed in on everything from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's book signing to the release of the latest "Star Wars" film and has been quoted by The New York Post, The New York Times, Newsday, The Associated Press, National Public Radio and the major television networks — not to mention The Independent of London and The Morning Call of Allentown, Pa.
As befits an everyman, Mr. Packer's opinions are fairly innocuous. Often, they are as dry as unbuttered toast.
"It's a day for happiness and to be together," he told an A.P. reporter at the St. Patrick's Day parade this year.
"Good people, good family, good balloons," he said to The Post, describing last year's Thanksgiving Day parade.
Mr. Packer, 39 and single, is an unimposing physical specimen who seems to exude the doughy anonymity that is native to certain quarters of suburban New York. He is of average height and weight, wears a mustache and worn-out tennis shoes and resembles nothing so much as a guy you might see with a broken-down car on the shoulder near Exit 43 of the Long Island Expressway.
Unlike political activists or university professors, who often advertise their professional credentials in news media guidebooks, Mr. Packer, the perfect grass-roots source, usually gets his name in the paper simply by showing up. He also has a predilection for being first in line.
"My expertise is being a psycho-fan," he says. "My opinion is always valid, and I always have an answer for everything."
Mr. Packer has been cultivating the press for several years now — he says he does not remember exactly how long it has been — and manages to attend at least two news events a week by using his vacation time. According to his contract with the Township of Huntington, he says, he gets 20 vacation days, 13 sick days and 5 personal days.
"I take just about any time off that I can get," he says.
The spartan sort, Mr. Packer typically equips himself with nothing more than the day's issues of the city's three daily newspapers when he sets off to wait steps from the red carpet at a movie premiere or some such. He eschews both rain gear and snack food. As for clothing, he subscribes to the layer method.
"I don't bring extra supplies," he says, "because you've got to worry about supplies being left behind."
There remains the question of why Mr. Packer devotes himself to things like leaving home at 1:30 a.m. to be on hand in the parking lot of Yankee Stadium for opening day or behind the barricades at the Tony Awards, ready and willing to deliver a quotation to a needy reporter.
Psychologists might be interested to know that when he was asked to describe his childhood, he recalled that his mother gave him a photograph of Natalie Wood when he was 8. Four years later, he said, his father presented him with Joe Louis's autograph.
Although the allure of celebrity seems to have taken root in Mr. Packer at a tender age, he says his adoration of the news media is more than a mere obsession with glamour.
"The media to me is like the same thing as the telephone," he said. While clearly intriguing, his analogy begged for further explanation. Mr. Packer was happy to oblige. "Instead of calling my folks, let's say, I'll go on TV," he said. "My mom will usually call back later saying: `Hi, Greg, this is Mom. You won't believe this, but we saw you on TV at the . . .' "
Just fill in the blank.
Mr. Packer, in fact, has garnered a bit of his own celebrity of late on certain Web logs favored by the news media.
"Who is Greg Packer?" Mickey Kaus wrote on Slate. " `Apparently the entire media's designated "man on the street" for all articles ever written.' " (Ever the responsible journalist, Mr. Kaus attributed these words to Ann Coulter, leaving this grateful and unashamed reporter to do the same.)
Mr. Packer's notoriety is becoming so widespread — at least among the navel-gazing news media crowd — that The Wall Street Journal sent a reporter to interview him on Friday for a profile.
Given Mr. Packer's deep familiarity and abiding love for the news media, one might consider it wise — even potentially enlightening — to ask his opinion of recent journalism scandals.
"I have no comment," said Mr. Packer, for whom the press actually has great value.
"Sometimes I need to stick my face in a camera," he says. "I just need to show people I'm alive."
FMCDH
I pay my taxes to the Town of Huntington. I wonder how many phony sick days this yutz has taken on my nickel to go and get in line for these moronic events.
There is a real Greg Packer, however, he is not as innocent as the Times makes it out, long story short, they got caught again, and this is a nice little cover up.
He almost always is quoted in the NY Times, rarely, if ever anywhere else. The press guys seem to know him and always recognise him. Personally, I think they tell him in advance where to be or go to, so they can give him something they want him to say when they ask him.
Its called "feeding". They have a juicy line they want the average joe to say, they call this shmuck up, give him his line, meet him at the place and he says it. It also keeps the elite media from having to talk to the dirty common people and have to hear them say something they may not like.
The Paper of [a terrible] Record
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (Whew--I had to catch my breath)
I'm assuming that this guy isn't related to anyone, to be honest with you, I have a gut feeling that if somone has more then one quote in a paper over time, that person is either a friend or relative. Here's the catch, no one ever checks up on that "guy on the street" source, and untill now, no one but Ann Coulter noticed Greg Packer. I did notice that I kept seeing his name, but honestly, I never thought about it. Sadly, yes, I do read the NY slimes.
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