Irresponsible allegations

My My My did I upset the media folks yesterday with my appearance on Susan Arbetter's Capital Pressroom.

I was asked by Susan to be on to talk about JJOKE's failure to include an email related to an allegation about Speaker Silver in the documents they collected as part of the monumental waste of time known as the Vito Lopez investigation.

Somehow Susan and Mickey Carroll (the Quinnipiac pollster) got diverted into a conversation about female reporters in Albany and Susan pointed out that we now have more of them. Why she said it I don't know but I provacatively noted that just means more opportunity for one or more female members of the media to sleep with a legislator.

Susan was visibly upset and asked if I would care to name names.

And thats where the media doesn't get the bigger picture

Who cares?  If the media cared about who was sleeping with who in government why didn't they go waste resources to find out?  It's only, pardon the pun, sexy now because someone is using the issue to attempt to leverage the speaker.

Weeks ago a Times Union reporter was talking to me about John Sampson and rumors regarding his alleged relationship with a female lobbyist.  I told the reporter I had heard the same rumors and I would certainly read the story but was the reporter prepared to follow the theme and really investigate the issue?  The reporter wrote the story and that was that no larger story about the issue.  And I was fine with that because at the end of the day who cares?  There are more relevant ethics issues that the media completely misses.  I've gotten used to it.

But half an hour ago Casey Seiler called me to ask if I would name names.

I told him what I told Susan the answer is no but you are missing the point.  Casey accused me of being irresponsible.  You pushed my button Casey and I gave him a quote for the record "when it comes to the media and reporting ethics do you think I give a shit about being irresponsible?"

If you care about my allegation Casey go out and ask people in the Albany media past and present if they've slept with people in the legislature.  I hope they all tell you to go F yourself.

Maybe then you will get the point I was making.  It's irresponsible to write about the issue now.    And if you plan on starting to cover the subject you will need to buy more ink. 

There is plenty of corruption in Albany that JJOKE ignores, plenty of lobby law violations that everyone tolerates, plenty of per diem and expense abuse that you can't seem to focus on.  And I get it everyone wants to read about the sex.  The media is more than happy to become a home for the ethical voyeurs.

So just think of me as an ethics tease.  Enjoy the hunt or go take a cold shower.

UPDATE  The blog is receiving more traffic more quickly as a result of this story than anything I've ever written.  What does that say about media coverage of ethics in Albany?  Thankyou goes out to Capital Tonight and the Times Union for linking their stories to my story.  How long will it take for those in the media to get the point of my comment and my manipulation of their instinct to be defensive?   If any of you folks in the media want me on your show to talk about the media's role in Albany's ethical morass I'm ready willing and able.  If you want me to name names save yourself the trouble and do a google search.   And Casey this is for you , , ' : ; ! ,.  Being able to punctuate properly doesn't make you more relevant.