Gabe Pressman

MINNEAPOLIS—TV news dean Gabe Pressman was hanging out yesterday in the lobby of the Marriott Hotel, where the New York delegation is staying, and was kind enough to share his opinion of the media coverage in Denver, specifically the storyline about Hillary Clinton supporters holding out on party nominee Barack Obama.

“They fomented a Hillary revolt but I never saw any sign of it. I saw disappointment and unhappiness but never a sign of revolt. And they got a five-day story out of it.”

He went on to say, “Many of the pontificators were peddling a story that wasn’t true. They never got off their butts and talked to people and found out.  read more »

Not long ago, Chuck Scarborough, the news anchor of WNBC-TV here in New York, was working on a story about the future of electric cars. For the piece, Mr. Scarborough conducted an extensive interview with one of the creators of the Tesla Roadster. In the end, as so often happens in an evening newscast, only about 45 seconds of the interview made it onto the air.

“But it was a cohesive interview that one could listen to, if you were so inclined, for the full 19 minutes,” said Mr. Scarborough. “So I put the whole thing on our Web site.”  read more »

Assemblyman Richard Brodsky of Westchester and Kathy Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, debated the mayor’s congestion pricing plan on NBC’s News Forum, which was taped this afternoon and will air Sunday.

Here's one of the highlights, in which Brodsky and Wylde debate whether or not environmental groups are actually supporting the plan.

(Transcript after the jump.)  read more »

Eliot Spitzer has given some indication in recent comments that he's thinking about scrapping his driver's license plan, and Liz and others have noted that there’s squabbling within the administration about whether to do so. Some critics of the driver’s license plan are also wondering whether Spitzer will back away from his support of the federal REAL ID Act, which almost every Democratic member of congress from New York voted against.

But in an email exchange earlier today, an administration official suggested to me that too much had been read into the governor's comments and that he's sticking to his plan.

How much longer, do we think?

Two things stand out about Eliot Sptizer’s interview this morning with Gabe Pressman (which will air on Sunday).

The first is the emphasis Spitzer places on the value of compromise: “I do not believe in taking positions and just standing on principle to the point where nothing happens.”

Second is his characterization of Hillary Clinton as a supporter of his driver’s license plan, based on her recent (if somewhat vague) answers about the issue.

Liz has more on the part of the interview where Spitzer discusses Bloomberg running for president.

Excerpts of the show's transcript, sent over by the show, are after the jump.    read more »

Sheldon Silver taped an interview this morning with Gabe Pressman about all the fun he’s having in Albany. A transcript NBC sent over highlights an interesting, if under-appreciated aspect of the Eliot Spitzer versus Joe Bruno storyline: the extent to which it's going to depend on Silver (!) to break the deadlock.

Assemblyman SILVER: Well, it's clear that they don't like each other. There's no question about it. And I am sitting between the two of them. I talk to both of them all the time. And I kind of feel like Henry Kissinger used to feel in the Middle East, doing shuttle diplomacy between the two of them.

PRESSMAN: That's what you've been doing?

Assemblyman SILVER: That's basically what I've been doing, trying to bring together the two parties without them having to meet together.

[skip]

“PRESSMAN: `I don't think anybody understands Shelly,' says Mr. Spitzer.

Assemblyman SILVER: Well, that's good. We're going to keep it that way.

PRESSMAN: That's part of your technique.

Assemblyman SILVER: Exactly.

In an interview taped this morning with Gabe Pressman, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly politely side-stepped a question about whether he might run for mayor in 2009 at the request of Michael Bloomberg.

From the interview:

 

PRESSMAN: Supposing he asked you to run for mayor after he leaves?

Commissioner KELLY: Well, I'm going to be police commissioner, hopefully, till the end of the term--Mayor Bloomberg's term here.

PRESSMAN: And after that?

Commissioner KELLY: Well, after that we'll see.

The interview will air on Sunday.

Here's a snippet of an interview Police Commissioner Ray Kelly did yesterday with WNBC's Gabe Pressman,according to a transcript:

GABE PRESSMAN: "Would you say that Rudy Giuliani could be elected president on this issue, terrorism?"

KELLY: "Well, he certainly did a spectacular job as mayor on 9/11, so to the extent that that resonates with the voting public. And if we had another attack anywhere in this country, certainly would, I think, you know, move in his favor."

The full interview airs at 6:30 a.m. on Sunday.

UPDATE: The transcript of the interview is here.

-- Azi Paybarah

Gabe Pressman explores whether Eliot Spitzer is a tough guy or a bully.

Ben tells the story of his eventful day.

Bronx Democratic Chariman Jose Rivera wants to hold a forum to decide whom to endorse, Hillary or Barack.

A City Council candidate running in Brooklyn is promising that if elected, she'll make sure every high school graduate will go on to college. But, she says, "I'm not promising Harvard..."

Eliot Spitzer and the WFP seem to be parting ways over the issue of health care spending.

Diane Ravitch responds to the NY Post, which has a low opinion of parent complaints about schools.

Andrew Cuomo is suing a student loan company in California.

And pictured above is Mathieu Eugene, a candidate for City Council again.

-- Azi Paybarah

So here's what Eliot Spitzer, sans protruding necktie, just told Gabe Pressman about 1199's television campaign against his health care spending cuts:

"I'm not really concerned in the sense that a healthy debate about a budget is part and parcel of the legislative and political process. But I'm concerned that people not be mislead by their ads that are fundamentally distortive . Understand Gabe, we need to restructure health care. Our health care system is both the most expensive in the nation and also one of the least effective. If you measure in terms of chronic diseases, if you measure in terms of the number of kids who are obese, if you measure in terms of asthma, if you measure in terms of our failure to provide health insurance, our health care system is not working well."

-- Azi Paybarah

One day after 1199 SEIU began airing television ads criticizing Eliot Spitzer for his planned cuts to health care spending, the governor is sitting down with Gabe Pressman for an interview in which he'll be asked for his response.

It starts at 10:30. Watch it live http://www.wnbc.com/index.html">here.

-- Azi Paybarah

Jason Horowitz calls in from Mike's swing through senior centers around the boroughs to note that reporters in Borough Park were taking bets on how long it would be before Mike mentioned his 96-year-old mother.

It took exactly 36 seconds, and Gabe Pressman won the pool.

A bit later, in Queens, Mike brushed off his strong poll numbers.

"How many of you have been called by pollsters?" he asked dismissively.

Only it turned out that about 20% of the hundred or so senior in attendance actually had been called by pollsters for a certain candidate.

"They were one of yours -- the Bloomberg pollster," a man told the Mayor.  read more »

CORRECTION: An early version of this post had the Brooklyn senior center in Bensonhurst, when -- as Jason Horowitz and an anonymous commentor both note -- it's in Borough Park. I got the location from the Bloomberg press release, making this a rare Bloomberg campaign slip-up. Cue the ethnic outrage.

Too bad Kevin Parker already endorsed. This is from Virginia's interview with Gabe Pressman, to air Sunday:

PRESSMAN: Do you consider yourself a fighter?

FIELDS: Oh, absolutely. I've always been a fighter. I've always had tofight on many different levels. And I'm a good fighter; I'm a tough fighter.And...

PRESSMAN: Physically or...

FIELDS: I've had to fight physically.

PRESSMAN: ...figuratively?

FIELDS: I've had to fight physically...

PRESSMAN: Really?

FIELDS: ...sometimes, much younger, you know, as a kid. I don't fight now. But...

PRESSMAN: What sort of fights did you have as a kid?  read more »

FIELDS: Well, it was usually about turf kinds of things, you know, whose side of the street did this group belong to, and you don't cross this side. Sometimes about boys, too, you know.