"Evil" Woman: The Demonization of Inez Haller

Today is truly a mixed bag for the tabloids, as we saw with the Bimbo-tastic issue of the Post and the downright somber in comparison Daily News, which has a piece on Mary J. Blige's new Jersey estate and "Kids go free at Shea!" promotion on its front.

The majority of the front page, however, is a simple black background with "SEE NO EVIL," a follow-up on the controversy that the Justice Department has denied death benefits to two auxiliary cops. The Daily News has been all over this story and they really drive home how outrageous the denial of benefits is with Michael Daly's column and Alison Gendar, Michael White and Tracy Connor's article on how Justice Department hearing officer Inez Haller refused to watch the tape of Eugene Marshalik and Nicholas Pekearo getting shot while on duty or listen to the 911 calls after the shootings.

Yeah, it's sensational, but maybe, just maybe Haller should have watched the tape, because now she and the rest of the folks in the Justice Department bureaucracy are about to become Enemy No. 1 in the Daily News. Think Eliot Spitzer in the Post, but without bimbo jokes. We get a picture of Haller and a "She refuses to watch" caption next to a photo of her and her husband. Is the detail that Haller left the Justice Department to become a singer in Nashville even relevant? Justice Department staffer Hope Janke gets the brunt of the criticism, since she is the one who rejected the benefits to begin with, but Michael Daly says the outrage should go all the way up to U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey. If the decision is overturned, look for all kinds of "as seen in the Daily News" back-slapping. And it will be deserved.