TrueNews: Media: Why Not Ask Comptroller Candidates About NY Pension Mess?

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Media: Why Not Ask Comptroller Candidates About NY Pension Mess?

Rattner Near Deal to Settle SEC Case(WSJ)

Media: Why Not Ask Comptroller Candidates About NY Pension Mess?

While Reports Truckle Out About Serious deficits in the State's Pension Funds, the Media Does Not Put the Questions to the Candidates About How Bad They Believe the state and the city is in the whole for. If you believe that campaigns should be about issues that the position controls and not about side issues the pension time bomb is what should be ask of each comptroller candidates. The media is not even asking questions about how to avoid the abuses of the pension fund by Hevesi and his pals. It is the role of the media to ask the questions the public needs to know.

Can a Comptroller -- Any Comptroller -- Fix New York State's Budget? (Gotham Gazette)

Pension Time Bomb Kept Ticking
Bloomberg has poured $20 billion into the retirement system over the past three year.

The threat to New York from the pension time bomb is made frighteningly clear in a new study out of Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management . City's pension funds are $122 billion in the red.

By the most aggressive measure, New York's total long-term price tag is $215 billion - almost twice the amount carried by the city and county of Los Angeles, which have a population almost 2 million larger than New York's.

N.Y. Faces $200 Billion in Retiree Health Costs (NYT) * Former New York gubernatorial candidate John Faso's law firm settles to pay in play probe (DN) * Pay the pension piper: New York is using junk accounting to figure its obligations (DN) * The best way to avoid another Alan Hevesi-type pension fund scandal is to turn defined benefit retirement plans into 401(k)-style defined contribution plans, the WSJ says.

Election 2010

Paladino’s campaign manager Michael Caputo took responsibility for failing to catch the most offensive parts of the speech prepared for his candidate by ultra-Orthodox Rabbi Yehuda Levin. * Paladino was dogged by gay protestors on the campaign trail. More here and here. * Former Westchester County DA Jeanine Pirro, who lost to Cuomo in 2006 after a short-lived US Senate run, is helping Paladino with debate prep.
Carl's gay nephew rips insulting rant (NYP) * Paladino Apologizes for Remarks About Gays (NYT) * New York’s Debate Gap The two major candidates for governor of New York should have a debate (or two or three), not one group news conference. (NYT Ed) * Paladino Says He's Sorry Now(WSJ) * GOP governor hopeful Carl Paladino cashed in on Buffalo gay clubs Cobalt, Buddies II (DN) * Gay nephew shows Carl how to keep mouth shut (DN) * Federal regulators confirmed U.S. Senate candidate Joe DioGuardi had financial ties to California businesses accused in federal court of defrauding investors by of dollars. The former congressman’s campaign insists he did nothing wrong. * On Andrew Cuomo's plan to create a state infrastructure bank, Christopher Jones of the RPA says, "The rationale for it is very sound." * Carl Paladino: MTA Not Going Voters' Way * Paladino Invokes Bloomberg In Blasting MTA (YNN) * Paladino pressured by family to apologize for anti-gay comments (NYP) * Breaking: Rabbi Yehuda Levin Pulls Support For Carl Paladino - Updated With Video

Not Up for Debate? Schumer Seems Shy for a Change(WSJ)

Board of Election Inept and Corrupt

U.S. Sues To Ensure Military Votes Are Counted (NYT) * U.S. Sues Over Ballots(WSJ) * Feds sue state over absentee ballot delay (DN)

More Parking Tickets

Parking violators could lose breakA program that offers reduced parking-ticket fines is set to expire. In what several politicians are blasting as just one more way to raise revenue..(NYP)

Subway

MTA's Select Bus Service isn't so speedy after all (DN) * City's subways inaccessible for disabled: suit (DN) * Disability Rights Advocates Claim MTA Stops Short On Making Stations Accessible

Education
Lauded Harlem Schools Have Their Own Problems (NYT) * State Is Likely to Ease a Rule on Extra Help for Students (NYT)

Pay to Play Health Care The Hasidic Looting Of New York's Home Health CareThe Sick Looting of Home Health Care A connected company's license to loot—at the expense of the taxpayers, elderly, and infirm (Village Voice). Vito Lopez And Vito Lopez cannot help them this time. He has his own problems Judge moves to delay B’way Triangle development further (Brooklyn Paper)
* "A Bushwick nonprofit that gets $1 million in taxpayer dollars to provide services for seniors is instead renting out its first floor to Assemblyman Vito Lopez’s political clubhouse — and giving back some of that money in “consulting fees” to the embattled lawmaker," reports The Brooklyn Paper.

200 Twinkies' Jobs Lost
The more than 140-year-old factory at 168-23 Douglas Ave. was in need of modernization and the corporation could not afford the large undertaking, according to Brian Driscoll, the chief executive officer of Hostess. Hostess to close Jamaica factory

Terrorism Trial of Man Once Held at Guantánamo Opens (NYT) * Judge Denies Bid for Mistrial in Synagogue Bomb Case (NYT) * Juror Is Dismissed From Bomb-Plot Trial(WSJ) * Opening Statements Begin In Trial Of Embassy Bombing Suspect (NY1) * Judge sets $500G bail for hate-crime cabby slasher (NYP)

Law and Order EMT's rap in gal's death (NYP) *E.M.T. Accused of Failing to Help Pregnant Woman Is Arraigned in Her Death * SI foster-kid vanish lawsuit (NYP) * W'chester cop in cross-border Bronx slay *Pelham Manor Officer Kills Suspect in the Bronx * What street gangs do Three cheers for the NYPD, which swiftly bagged 10 Bronx gang (NYP Ed) * Suspect in gang torture of gay men proclaims innocence (DN) * Arrest Expands Suspect Pool in Bronx Attacks (NYT) * Shootings Kill Three in Queens, Brooklyn(WSJ) * Teen charged in newsman slay laughs at confession (DN) * I fully 'intended to kill her,' Tarloff admitted after attack (DN) * Man Shot Dead In Bronx Following Police Chase (NY1)* 44 Charged in Huge Medicare Fraud (NYT) * Hip-hop Record Exec Bryan Leach Charged With Gun Possession In NYC - WPIX

Media and New Tech Page Six Editor Richard Johnson pens his goodbye after nearly 25 years.

Why Donate to True News Keep Real News Alive. Put simply, True News -- and the truth – cannot do more and could even end without financial help from the people who want to hold the government accountable for their actions. As you know True News, without any support, has fought to keep the real NYC’s investigative and analysis reporting era of great journalism alive. True News is a living memorial to publisher John Peter Zenger who was jailed in 1733 by the King for reporting to New Yorkers what was going on in their city. It is also in the tradition of the Ben Bradlee generation that believes that all reporters would not be doing their job if they did not follow the story until they got to the truth. Today’s reporters copy press releases from elected officials and lobbyists hired by the special interests who want to control the message. The lost circulation of newspapers has created a generation of young reporters who not only rely on elected officials and lobbyists for stories, but don’t even Google to find the historical context or, more importantly, the truth behind the stories they write. In this era of sell-out journalism, the public has become disconnected, powerless and trapped by a permanent government that has turned against them. The media blames an apathetic public for not voting even after democratic consultants act like an Orwellian 'Big Bother' threatening them to vote or be looked into. True News reports that the reason for the decreasing turn-out is the public no longer feel their votes matter. If you value hard hitting Investigative Journalism, don't let True News go the way of the Passenger Pigeon. The Newfield, Barrett, Kempton, Hammel of yesteryear are no more. Local TV news limits itself to good looking women and men reading about breaking fires and crimes, with few exceptions. What's left that isn't tabloid is a wasteland of superficial news, driven by political and corporate PR machines, sowing the fertile seeds of corruption public and private hand in glove. Despite the soft news we see, standard bearers play a significant albeit vestigial role. Newspapers constantly pick up stories from True News (without crediting us of course) avoiding the costs to investigate themselves. Without True News, the New York Press and this blog's over one and half million readers will be utterly lost in the wilderness. Only True News is explaining: How Blacks, the Poor and the Middle Class are Being Pushed out of Brooklyn Because of Albany's Tax Breaks for Luxury Developers and Apartments Gives Details How Lobbyists and Developers Run A Secret Shadow Government that Also Controls Elections With Big Money and Their Control Over the Media Investigates How Political Party Bosses Have Been Replaced By Lobbyists' Privatization of the Tammany Hall Machine Reports How the WFP and the Elected Officials Who Are Supported By Them Have Abused and Aggressively Broken Campaign Finance Laws. True news is not funded by special interests like the other news blogs. True News has been self-funded all these years. True News does not make nice with sitting politicians, developers, lobbyists to fund it or to provide its young clueless reporters with story ideas. True News wants nothing more than to scratch out a modest living in its aim to investigate, connect the dots, and get to the truth of every newsworthy story. To carry on in this mission, True News needs funding from people like you -- People Who Want Better Journalism in order to learn what is really going on in their government and fight the corrupt politicians. It's been written about True News Those of you who have an involvement in the dangerous game of politics, it may be of interest to know who’s telling the truth these days, and, whether the articles we read are real or imagined disinformation, emanating directly out of a governmental PR department. No genuine journalist would ever rely on such a source for the truth. As publisher of the SoHo Journal, through personal experience, take it from me that it is possible to become a political target for simply writing about the truth. And the mainstream media and writers eat their own for sales— as well as take orders from their masters— corporate, financial and political masters. Always pay attention to the agenda. Read between the lines. That is the basis of real reporting and political comprehension. Not the rehashing of a press release. OWS had a handle on this reality as well. Pay attention to the current daily blog written by Gary Tilzer. His True News is one of the few remaining sources for political investigative reporting. His fearless reporting of the truth in political circles is worth noting. Contributors names are confidential

Other Views

On October 15, 1958, veteran broadcaster Edward R. Murrow delivered his famous "wires and lights in a box" speech (VIDEO) The Last Lion of Tammany HOW JIMMY McMANUS, MANHATTAN’S LAST GREAT TAMMANY DISTRICT LEADER, HELPED TO REVIVE HELL’S KITCHEN AND THE THEATER DISTRICT c By James S. Kaplan f On January 13, 2011, the law firm of Proskauer Rose moved into 11 Times Square, which is located on 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues. In moving west to the final building of the City’s Times Square redevelopment, the Proskauer firm joined such other major law firms as Cravath, Swaine & Moore, Covington & Burling, Roberts & Holland, and the advertising firm of Ogilvy & Mather. That such major professional firms, along with a number of newly constructed luxury apartment buildings on 42nd Street from ninth to eleventh avenue and trendy restaurants and off Broadway theaters would be located west of 8th Avenue in midtown would have been almost inconceivable fifty years ago. Tammany Last Stand Continued

Send News Tips to True News

True New NYC@aol.com

"I don't care a straw for your newspaper articles, my constituents don't know how to read, but they can't help seeing them damned pictures." Boss Tweed

"When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny." Thomas Jefferson

The Internet is a large-scale version of the "Committees of Correspondence" that led to the first American Revolution

Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. ” -Thomas Jefferson

“Nearly all the newspaper accounts published at the time were manufactured by journalists at a distance, and were not only inaccurate in their facts but intentionally misleading.”
- George Orwell (Homage to Catalonia)

Gene Kelley in “Inherit the Wind” described the job of a newsman: “Comfort the afflicted; and afflict the comfortable.”

In the beginning of the last century, Lincoln Steffens and Jacob Riis were the muck rakers. Steffens tried to rouse the public to take action against the misdeeds of government and corporate leaders. Jacob Riis, a Danish immigrant, was the pioneer of photo journalism. He took his camera into the miserable tenement slums of the city. Depicting the plight of the poor, he wrote a book called “How the Other Half Lives.”

"Through the years of the 20th century even the most mercenary of newspaper owners were, above all, conscious of their duty to inform the public and they backed their reporters to the hilt. It was not just a matter of right or wrong---but common sense. The ethics of good journalism in this era, alas, seems to have been forgotten." Gabe Pressman

"A typical vice of American politics is the avoidance of saying anything real on real issues." Theodore Roosevelt

As a 19th-century Manhattan politician once observed, “no man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.”

"Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock." — Ben Hecht

Kempton once said, "There's no excuse for kicking somebody unless he's up." Murray Kempton used to kick people who were up all the time, and though he was half their weight and underpaid it was beautiful to watch. Quite beautiful.

Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations. - George Orwell

There is no final reliance but upon us; Democracy rests finally upon us. - Walt Whitman