New York Post Shills For MTV's Jersey Shore With Full Snooki Arrest Cover

Yesterday, upon the arrest of Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, we got a lesson on Twitter reporting, as TMZ scoured feeds for beachfront witnesses of "America's beloved pint-sized troublemaker." Wait, who called her "beloved," you might be wondering. That's the New York Post in today's cover story, another Jersey Shore journalism lesson. This time, it's how to please mega-corporations, like Viacom (which owns MTV and therefore Snooki) with huge "features" that double as advertorial for recently premiered television shows.

Nielson ratings put the season 2 premiere at about 5.3 million viewers, or "MTV's best season premiere since the season 2 launch of "The Osbournes" in 2002." And what better way to keep the momentum rolling than a publicity stunt like having the show's biggest star arrested and falling off a bike.

But this sort of stunt only works when you know you'll have a bunch of media outlets (and the bloggers charged with tracking them, ugh) lapping it all up, proliferating the story. Like, say, a cover story on a huge tabloid like the New York Post.

The resulting article, for which three reporters received a byline, is a huge commercial for the show, which don't forget, premiered on Thursday. All the proof you need is in the articles first sentence: "Snooki won't disappoint this season." Oh, and the sub-headline, which reads "'Shore' is wild."

Other pertinent details:

Last night Snooki dined with housemates Jenny "JWOWW" Farley, and Dina at a swanky Italian restaurant. Afterwards, the trio strolled back to their house flanked by police.

And, predictably, "MTV spokeswoman Emily Yeomans declined to comment." They just watch it play out and count their money. And we continue to get the celebrities we deserve.

Smashed Snooki booked [NYP]