‘One of the meanest things I’ve ever read’

Demeaning story about homeless man is condemned across social media

Aman samples food from a Whole Foods hot bar. On its face, this story starts pretty benignly. Far from an inconceivable act, an unnamed person’s only offence was disregarding the “numerous ‘ No Sampling’ signs” at a Midtown Manhattan supermarket.

Buffets aren’t exactly known as bastions of cleanliness, given that those tongs and serving spoons are touched by countless hands, many of which have been licked, coughed or sneezed into ( or yes, worse) and not washed. But this time, a New York Post photo editor, who “had just plunked down $17 for a jerk chicken dinner,” was there to witness the apparently newsworthy occurrence.

Clearly identifiable in an accompanying photo and video, the man became the subject of a demeaning story published on Dec. 30 — “Homeless man turns Manhattan Whole Foods into his personal hot bar” — in which a triple- bylined New York Post story describes him as “drooling and pungent” with “visibly dirty mitts” and “a scraggly beard.”

While the article includes quotes from unnamed employees who were familiar with the man — “Oh, he comes here all the time,” one told the New York Post. “We can’t do anything about it, we were told” — the voice of the subject is notably absent. Unsurprisingly, rather than the man’s behaviour, the dehumanizing tone of the article and the decision to broadcast his circumstances has elicited criticism on social media.

“There’s a lot to be said about the abject cruelty of this story — everything from the concept to the writing — but what’s really amazing is that the @nypost apparently has the resources to dedicate THREE bylines to a homeless man eating at a Whole Foods,” Times Union reporter Michael Williams tweeted.

“This is one of the meanest things I’ve ever read, and the @nypost should be ashamed,” Houston Chronicle journalist Maggie Gordon tweeted about the article. “People are people, y’all. Go into 2020 remembering that, please.”

The piece also has its defenders, including New York Post journalist Jon Levine, who tweeted: “A Whole Foods in Manhattan is allowing a deeply unsanitary situation to continue — with their own employees openly laughing about it — potentially putting their customers at risk. If you think it’s mean to report this news, you go eat at that hot bar!”

Whole Foods employees told the New York Post that the standard protocol in place for hot- bar snacking is for them to report the situation to the store’s security guards, and then discard the tray of contaminated food and replace it with a fresh one.

From its inflammatory opening line — “Bum appétit!” — to all that follows, the contention that the purpose of the story is to raise a food safety issue is hard to swallow. Setting someone up for ridicule by publicizing their presumed circumstances without actually speaking to them reeks of a complete lack of compassion, not a public service.