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By Bill Altreuter

Alan Bedeko, a fellow Spree writer and an entertaining fellow generally, gets his props from the New York Observer here. It is impossible to know if Carl Paladino might have been able to channel the current dissatisfaction with Albany and the national disenchantment with whatever it is that people are so pissed off about into a surprise win over Andrew Cuomo; but there is no question that the story Alan broke effectively dashed whatever chance Paladino might have had. (Why didn't it hurt him in the primary? I suspect because it was under-reported in the NYC press. People didn't know about it. Also, Rick Lazio ran a lackluster campaign that failed to mobilize his base. Paladino voters are -- or were-- motivated.)

I'm happy for Alan, but I'm also curious about how this whole thing came about. Buffalo Pundit is a must-read, but how did this scoop come to Alan? Obviously someone on Paladino's email list was troubled enough by the foul and offensive emails to pass them along-- but how did it happen that Alan was the only one to run with the story? If I had material like that and were so motivated I'd get it into the hands of every media outlet I could.  I'd send it to Bob McCarthy at the Buffalo News, and to ArtVoice, and to the television reporters that cover politics. I'd send it to the news director of every radio station. What I wouldn't do would be to start with a blogger. Of course, maybe Alan's source had a preexisting relationship with him, and maybe whoever it was passed the material to Alan because of that relationship, or because Alan was able to provide adequate assurances of confidentiality, but it seems to me equally likely that Bob McCarthy would have protected his source. So why did this story break on a blog? Did members of the traditional media have a shot at it and back away? I'll bet there's a good story there.

Full post as published by Outside Counsel on October 29, 2010 (boomark / email).