Ex-Cuomo Aide Attacks Press Coverage as Scandal-Focused

By DANNY HAKIM

ALBANY - A former top aide to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Thursday criticized news coverage of Albany, saying it had become too focused on scandal.

Steven M. Cohen, who served as secretary to the governor and now advises him from the private sector, said in a radio interview that “there is now in Albany a tone, not by everybody, but by certain elected officials, certain commentators and certain reporters, where it really is a nasty game, a game of gotcha, a scandal driven - and frankly, half of these scandals that are supposedly out there aren't even there, but a desire to catch people.”

“Albany has become a very curious place,” he added. “As some reporters confided to me, certain people take pride in knocking out elected officials. And their careers advance on that. And that also tends to generate this kind of desire to get things out, to get them in print.”

Mr. Cohen accused The New York Times and The Times Union of Albany in particular of being in a “race to the bottom” to publish recent articles about how the governor's staff handled sensitive records at the State Archives. Mr. Cohen and the host of the radio program, Fredric U. Dicker of The New York Post, also criticized articles by The Daily News and The Associated Press. The interview took place on 1300 AM in Albany.

The Cuomo administration has also been critical of some news coverage. Since Mr. Cuomo took office, his aides have, among other things, referred to an article in The Wall Street Journal as a “conspiracy theory,” said The Associated Press “has now decided to fabricate stories” and accused The New York Times of reporting “baseless speculation.”

Mr. Cohen told Mr. Dicker: “I should say the majority of reporters in Albany, I happen to think they do a terrific job. I'm friendly with many of them. They are hard working. It's not an easy environment in which to operate. But with that said, there are instances where there are problems.

“The difference between the way it used to be and the way it is today is that being an investigative reporter has become much harder, because there was a time when you had the luxury of not having to get things out quickly.”

“There really needs to be a change in tone,” he added, “greater civility and a better sense of the effect of some of this.”

Mr. Cohen, who was also a top aide when Mr. Cuomo was attorney general, was particularly angry about recent coverage that dealt with the Cuomo aides' removal from public view of some files in the State Archives about Mr. Cuomo's tenure as attorney general, and articles reporting that some former State Police officials had said Mr. Cuomo had discouraged them from taking lawyers to interviews with investigators looking into problems at the agency.

“It's part of this process where, if it has the whiff of scandal, it suddenly gets highlighted, even though the basis on which the reporters are basing the claims are very, very thin and weak,” Mr. Cohen said.

Mr. Cuomo has argued that the records at the archives were confidential and had initially been made public only by mistake, and has denied having discouraged State Police officials from being accompanied to interviews by legal counsel.