A rumor without a leg to stand on will get around some other way. ~John Tudor

Trying to squash a rumor is like trying to unring a bell. ~Shana Alexander

But it’s put every news organization in a peculiar quandary the last two days; namely, there may be a big story brewing involving the state’s chief executive, but nobody can say what it is, or even IF it is. There are just a lot of…rumors. Here’s how the ever-factual Associated Press is handling it as of Monday afternoon:

ALBANY, N.Y (AP) - A spokeswoman for New York Gov. David Paterson is calling rumors about his personal behavior "absolutely false" and says he will not resign.
Paterson spokeswoman Marissa Shorenstein made the statement Monday.
Rumors around the Capitol and anonymous reports in some media outlets about Paterson personal conduct come as he considers seeking election later this year.

Did you get that? Governor Paterson is not going to resign! But what is he not resigning over? “Rumors around the Capitol”? “Anonymous reports in some media outlets”? His “personal behavior/conduct”? All of which tells you absolutely nothing. I wouldn’t resign over nothing either.

Snow is on the way. You might have heard something about that. You might have heard nothing else but that for the past two or three days. Indeed, impending bad weather, followed by bad weather itself, are two things local media can never be accused of under-covering. The reason for this, I think, is that in today’s demographically-divided, multicultural, 500-channel niche media world, the weather is the last thing we all have in common, and experience together at the same time. That and watching the Super Bowl. And maybe “Jersey Shore.”

There seem to be two schools of thought for how viewers regard the local media’s saturation coverage of snow storms. On one side, people like it, appreciate it, and can’t get enough of it. It helps them plan for changes in their routines, informs them about closings, and keeps them up on traffic and transit problems. On the other side are those who say, look.. it’s winter. It’s the northeast. It gets cold and it snows, sometimes a lot. Get over it. What else happened today?

What one journalist is calling “the greatest health scare of recent times” is over tonight. Maybe. Well, probably not.

I’m talking about the news today that the British medical journal “The Lancet” has completely retracted findings it published in 1998 that vaccines administered in early childhood are linked to autism, and the increasing incidence of autism. The vaccine issue has roiled the autism community ever since. No, “roiled” is too gentle a term. It has been World Wars One, Two, and Three, pitting autism families bitterly against one another, and alarming doctors who have witnessed growing numbers of parents not getting their children vaccinated at all.

Not again, Artie!

As some of you might know, Artie was the name of the wise and all-knowing executive producer character in “The Larry Sanders Show,” a comedy send-up of late night talk shows that aired on HBO during the 1990’s. Not to overstate the matter, but it was one of the best shows ever on television. Artie was played by Rip Torn, who’s in the news today after his latest alcohol-related run-in with the law. This one was a doozy:

SALISBURY, Conn. (AP) — Actor Elmore "Rip" Torn has been charged with breaking into a Connecticut bank and carrying a loaded handgun while intoxicated. State police say the 78-year-old Salisbury resident was arrested Friday night after police found him inside the Litchfield Bancorp with a loaded revolver.”

I’m going to spare you my thoughts today, and ask for yours. As more politicians weigh in against having the 9/11 terror trials in lower Manhattan—Mayor Bloomberg yesterday, Governor Paterson today—and as people who live and work downtown plead for a change of venue to spare them years of disruption, what’s your opinion? Has it changed since the Justice Department first announced last year it would hold the trials here?

Okay, I’ve seen enough. I want one. Or, I should say, iwant one. Talking about the new Apple ipad, of course, unveiled today by Steve Jobs in typical bombastic fashion, with techno dorks around the world just shivering in anticipation.

I’ve always said it: you can take the boy out of the Neolithic village, but you can’t take the Neolithic village out of the boy.

Remember when going back to your wife after an affair with an unstable woman could get your kids’ bunny boiled? Now you get billboards and websites. Crazy revenge love, like everything else, has gotten media-savvy.

The two city medical workers accused of refusing to treat a dying pregnant woman are back on the job, and giving their side of the story. They say that while they were waiting in line during their morning break at a Brooklyn Au Bon Pain restaurant, they were told an employee needed an ambulance. They claim they called in the emergency, and then left because there was not a sense of urgency being conveyed by anyone. (Other witnesses say they told employees they were on their break, and that someone at the restaurant needed to call 911.) The stricken young woman, Eutisha Rennix, died a short time later—of asthma, an autopsy would reveal—along with her unborn baby.

Something bugs me about the EMT’s story: if someone tells them a person needs an ambulance, I think that in itself conveys a sense of urgency. But as Jason Green and Melisa Jackson tell it, they never even went to go have a look at Rennix. They say they called it in, then left. Besides, they claim, even if they had gone to look at her, they say they didn’t have the proper equipment to treat her.

Another year, another recall of millions of child strollers because they can injure or even amputate the fingers of children in the hinge mechanisms. This time it’s Graco strollers; three months ago, it was the more upscale McClaren models. Graco today is telling its customers to stop using the strollers immediately. My question is, how many parents do you think will follow that directive?

Congratulations to Chris Christie, newly-inaugurated governor of the great state of New Jersey. I wish him well. And I wouldn’t trade places with him for anything.

It happened again over the weekend. At JFK, a Haitian man and part time NYC resident, perhaps understandably disoriented leaving his earthquake-ravaged country a few hours earlier, walked into a restricted area at the airport after not seeing a sign barring access. You know what happened then: Terminal 8 went into lockdown, flights were delayed for over two hours, people who had already been screened by security had to be rescreened. I believe the operative word on the news is “chaos.” The reason the errant gentleman claims he went out the wrong door? He thought it was the way to find a taxi.

As the survivors of US Airways flight 1549 celebrated today the first anniversary of the miracle landing on the Hudson River, it may seem as if it would be an occasion for unrestrained joy. After all, everybody on board that plane beat extremely long odds to survive the watery crash landing, one of the few successful such landings in the history of airline aviation. Captain Sullenberger and his crew have become internationally renowned for what they accomplished. One man and woman who were on the plane have even fallen in love after getting to know each other at earlier reunion gatherings. They all cheated death! Happy happy, joy joy… right?

The Yankees got the parade up Broadway for winning it all last year, but on days like today, I want to have another parade for the Mets. I know, I know, they’ve disappointed on the field more than fans would ever like, but those same fans can take pride in the constant public service efforts made by the organization and its players.

The phrase “life is not fair” could serve as Haiti’s national motto. I’ve never been there, but as a news person have watched and reported over the years as one political, economic, and natural disaster after another struck the poverty-stricken island nation. Now comes a major earthquake, causing major destruction, and massive loss of life.

I’ve never been as big a fan of Conan O’Brien as I am tonight.

Not that I didn’t like him when he was host of NBC’s “Late Night,” the show he inherited from David Letterman, and which followed Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show” since the early Nineties. I thought he approached his program less as a polished performer than as an incredibly creative comedy writer, and that made for many brilliant, if uneven, moments over the years.

The Obama administration, Sen. Chuck Schumer, and other democratic power entities seem to be doing their best to keep Harold Ford, Jr. from running in this year’s U.S. Senate primary against appointed junior Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Ford, apparently, isn’t having it; today he said he’ll continue to explore a run against Gillibrand, even at the expense of all-for-one democratic kumbaya unity over who runs in the general election.

When Mayor Bloomberg pushed through his smoking ban for New York city nearly seven years ago, I was skeptical. I’m not a smoker, but…I’ve been in bars with people who are, put it that way. I thought banning smoking in bars and nightclubs—places where, by definition, people go to relax, have fun, and not necessarily focus on maintaining a healthy lifestyle—was nagging and punitive.

We have a story tonight about people protesting against a cell phone tower near a school in Bayville, on Long Island. The demonstrators are insisting a cancer cluster has sprung up among children and school employees because of electromagnetic radiation coming from the tower.

So after billions of dollars spent on better airport security and more effective screening of airline passengers, the system breaks down over one guard wandering away from his post for a few seconds??

As you’re seeing on the news tonight, that appears to be what happened at Newark Airport on Sunday. A security checkpoint guard walked away from his post for a few seconds, a guy slid past the checkpoint desk for a few extra moments with his departing sweetheart, and a major international airport terminal had to virtually shut down on one of the busiest travel days of the year.