Metro

Quinn puts pressure on MSG and Time Warner Cable

Linsanity has spread to city government.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn fired off letters yesterday to the two top executives of Time Warner Cable and Madison Square Garden, warning they’ll face a public grilling if Knicks and Rangers games aren’t restored to more than 2 million blacked-out cable subscribers.

“It has been reported that discussions between the two sides have recently taken place for the first time in nearly two months,” Quinn wrote MSG Chairman James Dolan and Time Warner CEO Glenn Britt.

“If these discussions cannot produce a resolution within two weeks, the City Council will hold hearings and request that both parties explain themselves to the public . . . At a time when all New Yorkers are getting together behind Jeremy Lin and the New York Knicks, now is the time to resolve this dispute once and for all.”

$CORE ONE FOR CABLE CUSTOMER

SERBY’S Q&A WITH JEREMY LIN

COMPLETE KNICKS COVERAGE

Quinn described the Lin phenomenon as a “magical Cinderella story” that deserved the widest possible audience.

Among those hoping to watch Lin this week was Queens Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. who took to Facebook yesterday to vent his frustration over the impasse with a politically incorrect joke.

“so since i cant see jeremy lin on cable because MSG wants a 53% increase, i did the next best thing and took my daughters to applebees last night and had the ‘sizzling asian’ special,” he wrote.

Only a handful of Vallone’s Facebook “friends” took issue with the comment, but he answered critics on the social-network site with another post.

“to the few of you who thought my applebees post was insensitive, i’m sorry . . . that you have no sense of humor. please de-friend me (i need the space) so you are not traumatized by any future posts. you apparently have me confused with other politically correct electeds,” Vallone wrote.

Last night, Vallone told The Post, “Anyone who has a problem with it should stop off on the way home and buy a sense of humor — Lin is on fire right now.”

Knicks fans have been “hooping” mad since Jan. 1, when a dispute over royalties led MSG to pull its sports programming from Time Warner’s cable systems.

That’s left frustrated fans with limited options to catch Lin in action: shell out hundreds of dollars for game tickets or hunt down a bar or like-minded friend who has DirecTV or FIOS.

Time Warner’s 10-year franchise with the city was renewed last year, so Quinn has limited powers to force the two sides together.

“We’re really talking about public pressure,” said one source.

Quinn’s nudge to the battling media companies wasn’t supported by Mayor Bloomberg, who has adopted a hands-off approach since the fracas started.