Casey Seiler, editor in chief of The Albany Occasions Union, was in a gathering on Tuesday afternoon with the newspaper’s government committee of their workplace close to the airport when he noticed a remark he made privately months earlier was now circulating on Twitter.
“Ugh, no, no! Not off the document,” Mr. Seiler was quoted as saying. “No, don’t ship us something except it’s on the document, Melissa, okay?” referring to Melissa DeRosa, a prime aide to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.
Mr. Seiler, largely bald and boyish-looking, like a nerdy Patrick Stewart, declined to specify how usually he says “ugh” in skilled settings. However the spirit of the change — made public as a part of a bombshell report launched on Tuesday by the state legal professional common — was consultant of what life has been like at Mr. Cuomo’s hometown paper whereas the governor fights for his political life.
Mr. Seiler had been protesting Ms. DeRosa’s supply in March to ship the newspaper a doc a few girl who accused Mr. Cuomo of harassment. Placing info off the document — particulars that may’t be instantly shared with readers, however could possibly be supposed to affect protection — was one thing the Occasions Union discouraged. In the end, no doc was despatched. (“It wasn’t a personnel file. It wasn’t something derogatory,” Richard Azzopardi, director of communications and senior adviser to Mr. Cuomo, later mentioned. The doc would have “added slightly little bit of context” to the dialog, he mentioned.)
That report from the state legal professional common concluded that Mr. Cuomo harassed 11 ladies and oversaw a poisonous work surroundings.
Many particulars are on the document now, together with the lengths to which Mr. Cuomo’s crew went to handle his picture throughout this disaster. For The Occasions Union particularly, that has included the crew supplying probably damaging details about an accuser; ceaselessly insisting on going off the document when contacted by a reporter; offering inaccurate information; and screaming at reporters and editors in phone calls.
The pandemic curler coaster that Mr. Cuomo has been on additionally took the paper for a experience. Mr. Cuomo’s recognition soared throughout his often televised coronavirus briefings (sobering knowledge, inspirational quotes, zingers from his brother, the CNN host Chris Cuomo), which stood in distinction to President Trump’s (harmful info, false reassurances and attacks on reporters). But whereas different journalists on the paper had been often referred to as on to ask Mr. Cuomo questions, the pinnacle of the paper’s Capitol protection by no means was.
Now, within the aftermath of the legal professional common’s report, Mr. Cuomo’s ways and his targets are in full view. On Tuesday, seeing the phrases he uttered privately circulating on-line, Mr. Seiler picked up his laptop computer and walked out of the assembly. Then, he referred to as Brendan J. Lyons, who oversees the Occasions Union’s protection of the Capitol and who was on that cellphone name with Ms. DeRosa in March.
Mr. Lyons already knew one thing was occurring. He was working from dwelling when he noticed somebody on Twitter name him and Mr. Seiler heroic. His first response: “Uh oh.”
Neither man had recognized that the 38-minute cellphone name in March had been recorded, presumably by Mr. Cuomo’s aides, not to mention that the recording was obtained by investigators, transcribed and featured within the legal professional common’s report.
In early March, days earlier than the cellphone name, Mr. Lyons had revealed an interview with an unnamed aide to the governor who mentioned he had groped her. Now, months later, Mr. Lyons raced to recall whether or not that secretly recorded cellphone name laid naked by the legal professional common’s report would possibly embody details about the aide that was by no means supposed to be public.
“It is a story about sexual harassment,” Mr. Lyons mentioned in an interview. “Is there one thing in there that’s damaging to a sufferer, or exposes a sufferer?”
For the 165-year-old newspaper rooted in a county with fewer residents than Staten Island, the Cuomo scandal is a uncommon second of wider consideration. For years, as on-line platforms and social media devoured up promoting {dollars} and audiences, information organizations protecting state capitols, together with Albany, have shrunk. The Occasions Union has devoted extra assets than most different retailers to protecting Mr. Cuomo and his administration: Along with Mr. Lyons, two different reporters and a youthful, reporting fellow, are assigned to the Capitol, not together with beat reporters who veer into protection, too.
The Occasions Union, which is owned by Hearst, has caught to its old school rules. No going off the document except completely needed. Minimal schmoozing with sources. Don’t let your inbox dictate the way you’re going to spend your day.
That strategy is especially ill-suited for a Cuomo administration. Mr. Cuomo, a three-term Democratic governor, is the son of a three-term Democratic governor. Each developed reputations for obsessing over their media protection, calling reporters and editors seemingly with out reservation, and shunning these whose protection they didn’t like, based on journalists and former aides.
Mr. Seiler described Mr. Cuomo because the Shakespearean determine whose “biggest expertise or attributes are so inexplicably certain up with their flaws and their sins.” He added: “What makes him such a formidable employee of the equipment of politics additionally makes him a management freak who has a horror of investigations that he doesn’t management.”
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When Mr. Cuomo was legal professional common, Mr. Lyons wrote an unflattering article about him. After it appeared, Mr. Cuomo referred to as Mr. Lyons. “I made the error,” he mentioned, of permitting Mr. Cuomo to go off the document within the name. “Then he proceeded to scream at me and actually say some issues that had been out of line.”
After some time, Mr. Lyons recalled, he mentioned, “I’ve had sufficient — I’m not listening to you anymore” and steered Mr. Cuomo name his supervisor, which Mr. Cuomo promptly did earlier than Mr. Lyons might give the supervisor a heads up. “And he began screaming and threatening him as effectively,” Mr. Lyons mentioned. The lesson, he mentioned: “I’ll by no means let this man go off the document with me once more.”
Mr. Azzopardi, who has been with the administration for 9 years, mentioned, “I can’t inform you what the governor did or didn’t do” when he was legal professional common.
On going off the document, Mr. Azzopardi mentioned, “Typically you want to have the ability to clarify context with out watching each phrase you say rigorously.” He added: “It’s not any totally different right here than in another political group.”
The report by the New York State legal professional common Letitia James has fueled requires Mr. Cuomo to resign instantly. And the flames engulfing Mr. Cuomo’s political home are additionally casting a brand new mild on the newspaper in his yard.
“I’m no fan of the paper,” Fredric U. Dicker, the previous state editor of The New York Put up and as soon as thought-about a pleasant media ally of the governor, mentioned in an interview. “However to the Occasions Union’s credit score, they’ve had some very sturdy tales attempting to look into the administration.”
In 2019, Mr. Cuomo and his longtime girlfriend broke up. He moved out of the Westchester dwelling they shared and into the governor’s mansion, changing into a full-time Albany resident for the primary time since his father was governor.
It was a house the Queens-born governor by no means needed, based on Mr. Dicker, who had been engaged on a e book about Mr. Cuomo earlier than they’d a falling out in 2013.
“He considered Albany — I do know, he instructed me — small city, small time,” Mr. Dicker mentioned. “And I believe he discovered Albany even worse than he had remembered it.”
Mr. Cuomo was unhappily replanted in Albany, and the scrutiny of the Occasions Union, a sturdy day by day newspaper devoted to his metropolis and trade, was unlikely to enhance his temper. “We needed to sort of soar by way of hoops to get any entry to him, regardless that we had been in his yard.” Jessica Marshall, a multimedia producer for the Occasions Union, mentioned. “He was all the time inaccessible. Previous to the pandemic, in the course of the pandemic, the scandal, every thing.”
The paper, technically positioned within the neighboring city of Colonie, is the paper for Albany, a metropolis of 96,000 individuals, many with work tied to the federal government. In that fishbowl, the plastic citadel of the governor’s mansion could possibly be confining.
And now, as Mr. Cuomo seems to be working out of room to swim, The Occasions Union is being celebrated.
Mr. Seiler’s rebuke of Ms. DeRosa’s supply ought to be taught in journalism colleges, one reporter at The New Republic said the day the report was launched. The editor in chief of WNYC public radio said, “Each reporter and editor ought to decide to reminiscence these well-known phrases” uttered by Mr. Seiler.
The New Yorker interviewed Mr. Seiler for a narrative with the headline, “How Andrew Cuomo Holds on to Energy.” And Mr. Lyons appeared on MSNBC (The Room Rater account on Twitter: “Love the colours. Artwork. Mild. Window on proper. Crop left. 9/10.”)
Mr. Lyons took over Capitol protection for the paper in 2017, after overseeing investigative initiatives. His probing questions led to main scoops, in addition to a cold reception from the governor.
“I gave up elevating my hand within the Zoom calls, asking to be referred to as on,” Mr. Lyons mentioned, discussing Mr. Cuomo’s pandemic information conferences and the smattering of availabilities the governor held for the reason that preliminary allegations in opposition to him had been made public beginning in February. “I’ve by no means been referred to as on a single time.”
Mr. Azzopardi mentioned The Occasions Union pushed to have in-person information conferences after which “they didn’t hassle to point out up.” So, he mentioned, “on that time, I’m not that sympathetic.” Mr. Seiler mentioned a mix of security issues and information worth led the paper to cowl these occasions remotely.
On the time he was being ignored, Mr. Lyons naturally needed a proof. “I mentioned to one in all my reporters, in case you get referred to as on, to ask him who’s the individual choosing who will get to ask the questions?” Mr. Lyons recalled.
Mr. Cuomo, he mentioned, “claimed to not know.”