Governor Paterson And Reporting Rumors

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.

Which is maybe the point. A politician as wounded as David Paterson might be seen by his enemies—and to read articles like this, he’s got nothing BUT enemies—as needing just one more nudge to ruin even the faint hope he still holds that he can win a full term in November:

“As Paterson has slowly progressed as governor, projecting leadership though still struggling to assert his will on crucial issues, the personal and political toll on him has been striking: A man who only two years ago was one of the most popular in Albany is now reviled by his former colleagues. Those are good enemies to have, but one result of Paterson’s calamitous time in office is that he has become more isolated, trusting an ever-smaller cadre of aides even as he’s desperately in need of allies.”

Although he still lags far behind Andrew Cuomo in a hypothetical (since Cuomo still hasn’t declared his candidacy) primary contest, Paterson has been picking up a few more approval points in recent months, mostly by standing up to legislators over the state’s fiscal crisis. Maybe his enemies want to nip any “comeback kid” narratives in the bud, and widespread rumors about an impending resignation, duly picked up and repeated in the media echo chamber, would more than do the trick. Would you give money to a candidate you’re hearing might not even be making it to the end of his appointed, abbreviated term?

We’ll have to see what finally gets reported, if anything, about Paterson’s “behavior” to put all these pieces together. But when the initial story is the rumors themselves, the truth might turn out to be anticlimactic, and--in terms of ruining Paterson’s political career—redundant.