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Graphic Anti-Smoking Signs, A Prelude To Health Nut Slavery?
By
John Del Signore
Published Jun 26, 2009
Modified Jun 26, 2009
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By
John Del Signore
Published Jun 26, 2009
Modified Jun 26, 2009
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You know who's not on board with the Health Department's plan to make tobacco retailers display graphic anti-smoking posters? The New York Post, that's who. The tabloid is sick of the government telling us what's bad for us all the time, and someone in Murdoch's stable has penned a cranky editorial about it, darkly wondering how far this health-nut meddling go: "What's next? Mandatory autopsy attendance?" There's also a rockin' allusion to The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again": "Meet the new Tom—same as the old Tom." That's a reference to Tom Farley, Mayor Bloomberg's replacement for ex-city Health Commissioner Tom Frieden, who recently joined the Obama administration. Farley's assistant promises that with this new anti-smoking campaign, "You're going to see what a blackened lung looks like. You're going to see what mouth cancer looks like. You're going to see what it looks like when you have throat cancer." Awesome, right? But to the Post, this is just a blatant power grab:"Mayor Mike and his new health commisar mean to festoon food stores with massive, disgustingly graphic images because they can, not because they should." Basically, it's 1939 all over again! First they came for the smokers...
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bloomberg
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graphic
signs
smoking
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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