As a publication, Hell Gate is naturally skeptical and indeed diametrically opposed to the kind of backslapping, "at the end of the day, we're all friends here" energy that pervades media events like the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner and its local counterpart, the Inner Circle show. The Inner Circle, for those who aren't familiar with the annual event, is a century-plus-old institution run by City Hall reporters and attended by politicos, all in the name of charity (this year, money was raised for student journalists and musicians), that most notably features a musical put on by those very same City Hall reporters as a send-up of whomever is mayor (the mayor is often in attendance). A table at the event goes for tens of thousands of dollars, while a single ticket will cost the general public $950.
And unlike some previous years, where there were only a few playful jabs lobbed at whoever was in Gracie Mansion, Saturday's show was a wonderfully mean-spirited affair, featuring legit enmity between City Hall and the reporters who cover the mayor.