Paladino and Thompson Either Lied or Hacked

In Sunday’s Buffalo News, Bob McCarthy lazily transcribed tea party guy and Paladino henchman Rus Thompson thusly: 

[Rus] Thompson said the Paladino campaign engaged investigators to track the email trail.

“So we know where it came from,” he said.

I wrote about that here, yesterday. Paladino and Thompson both cite the release of the emails as being the last straw in the Higgins – Paladino relationship, because Paladino accuses Higgins of leaking them. Thompson tells McCarthy that they had proof via some “investigation”. 

But others who were involved in that campaign say there was no such “investigation”. 

Anyone with even minimal knowledge knows that you can’t “investigate” and “track” an outgoing email trail unless you have access to the recipient’s email. One can’t go into Paladino’s outbox and determine what the recipients of a particular email did with it. You can’t determine what any of the recipient’s recipients did with a particular email, etc. If Paladino felt it was embarrassing and caused “anguish” for his racist, pornographic emails to reach the general public, it was his responsibility to not share them. 

On the other hand, if Paladino and Thompson are alleging that an investigator really did learn who sent the email to me, the only way that could have happened is if they hacked into or otherwise illegally accessed my personal Gmail account – i.e., committed a crime. It’s lose:lose. Had Bob McCarthy verified the information his dopey source mouthshat at him, he could have factored that into the semi-informed, drool-moistened nonsense he wrote regarding a turning point in the relationship he was profiling.  

Here’s what McCarthy’s source had to say for himself when challenged yesterday

That’s pretty definitive and not open to interpretation. Rus KNOWS. 

Watch Rus take the “investigation” bike and start pedaling backwards: 

 

The timestamp is about 3 – 4 hours later than EST, and as of this morning there’s no reply to that. Why? Because there is no “investigation”. There was no fantastical “tracking” of what one of the people on Carl’s email list did with the emails once they received it. They can’t produce the name of the person who disclosed the emails to me, and they have absolutely no proof that Higgins or his staff provided me with the emails. 

When you let sources lie to you on the record, and you don’t reach out to other people involved to verify the information, you’re committing some pretty shoddy “journalism” there.

26 comments

  • OK, so now two days of this little game.  The only fact the reader can glean from all this is that you, Alan Bedenko do know who leaked the e-mails as they were leaked to you.
    So no more games.  Did or did not Higgins or anyone in his campaign leak them to you?  That Sir requires only a simple “yes” or “no” answer.

    • No. 

      (It was already answered 3x on Twitter – as evidenced by RaChaCha’s comment to Rus shown above, and once here.)

      • One question always begets another.  How do YOU know?  Just suppose the possibilities.  Suppose Higgins took all those e-mails, transferred them to a new e-mail account, one that did not directly identify him…and then sent them to someone he knew would “out” them to the press?  Suppose Higgins created that new, unidentifying e-mail address and sent them to say…Alan Bedenko.  How would you know?
        Unless you recieved them from someone you DID know and you did your due diligence and interviewed that person face to face and verified all the connections…how could you ever know?  And you, it seems are not saying.
        So, are we readers not left equally uninformed by both McCarthy AND yourself?

        • Because I am acquainted with the trusted source.

          • Here is the difference – one journalist (Alan) has no obligation to reveal his sources, although he is willing to at least reveal that Higgins was not it.  The other “journalist” (McCarthy), transcribes some pretty serious accusations by Paladino without even the slightest effort to confirm their validity.

            This is Journalism 101. Not rocket science.  McCarthy, who is obviously too afraid of Paladino to ever challenge him, could have easily called WNY Media.net (which he purposefully failed to acknowledge in the article) and investigated the claim.

        • Unless, of course, in this small town that is Buffalo, Alan actually knew the person who leaked him the emails……….WOAH…….mind….officially….blown….. I mean, seariously @rhmaccallum…troll much?

          • Troll often but the fishing has not been real good lately…alot of nibbles but no hard bites…lol.  Still it seems that we are where we started…forced to believe one persons “trusted source” over some one elses.  The point being e-mails (and their trail thru cyberspace) are so very impossible to verify.
            Actually the point is “who cares?”  The e-mails are outed, Paladino does not deny.  Move on.  One reporter snipping at another reporter, neither of which is about to disclose their “trusted sources”.  It’s all personal tit-for-tatting.  Give us something pertinent or move on.

          • …and if anyone reading my comments assumes I am any kind of fan of Paladino or Thompson…think again!

          • It’s pertinent enough for you to leave multiple comments here. 

            I’m not at liberty to disclose my source, but I am at liberty to disclose that the source is not Brian Higgins or anyone on his staff. 

          • Having fun leaving comments…I just figured out how to di it here.  Used to comment in “The News” but now they want you to pay to comment.
            Now get busy and cover Paladino and the manipulation of the school board election.  That’s current and should be good for many many laughs.

        • You are right….one question always begets another….Just for the heck of it would Mr Macallum like to tell us all who he voted for in the last NYS gubinatorial election

          • Why certainly Uncle.  In that election I was between a rock and a hard place.  Wouldn’t vote for Paladino for numerous reasons.  Couldn’t vote for Cuomo for numerous reasons.  So I just wrote in “Paterson”.  I have amassed quite a record of voting for persons who don’t win.

          • Cant hold that against you. Patterson would have been the least of the 3 evils……. Subject: [artvoice] Re: Paladino and Thompson Either Lied or Hacked

          • But oh wouldn’t it be loverly if we actually had the oportunity to vote for someone that was neither a tea-party nitcase or a totally self serving political animal?
            How Mr. Rogers got thru life without being POTUS boggles my mind.

          • I’m with you on that…….
            Subject: [artvoice] Re: Paladino and Thompson Either Lied or Hacked

  • this is getting kinda embarrassing. just sayin.

    and the fact that the word “journalism” was even mentioned here is a slap in the face to real journalists everywhere….. though, admittedly it is a dying breed (sadly).

    That being said, years ago I used to actually be on the legendary “Paladino Mail List” for porn and crazy jokes etc…. not because I am into that stuff, but it was more that I used to get forwarded the stuff by one of his office employees (who is a good friend) in more of a “can you believe this shit?” type of way.  Some of the stuff that used to be forwarded along was the craziest, most disgusting, most disturbing stuff I’ve ever seen.  True story.

  • Its not that Mccarthy is afraid of Paladino…its that he is a shill for forms of his ilk………

  • To paraphrase the late Truman Capote, The News Politics column is not writing… It’s dictation.

  • Looks like the same crack investigators that Sheriff Joe and the Donald engaged to get to the bottom of the Kenyan-Marxist President’s birth certificate.

    That’s gotta be a booming business – hire yourself out for investigative services to crackpot right-wingers, ???, profit!

  • tonyintonawanda

    If this had been just a tidbit in McCarthy’s column for political junkies then he could probably get a away with the shoddy reporting.  But when it becomes the screaming headline on the front page of Sunday’s paper, one would think the editors would expect a little more…I don’t know…fact checking?  

  • Once again, the subject of the original column was the animosity between Paladino and Higgins.  The veracity of Paladino’s claims are not relevant, although the claims could make the basis for a separate story.  Attacking the claims are fine, attacking McCarthy for writing the piece is off-base.

    From the column – Paladino then and now blames Higgins’ staff for the leak.“That was the end,” Paladino says now. “I knew he did it. And it only caused more anguish in the family than we already had.”

    McCarthy never claimed to be making a statement of fact.  Paladino’s perception, beliefs and thoughts are relevant as supporting material to explain the animosity.  It’s that simple.

    • So, is this an objective column by the lead political reporter at the City’s daily paper of record? Or is it a transcription of one of Carl Paladino’s usual email rants? Is Bob McCarthy in the habit of playing stenographer, dutifully transcribing the rants of his column’s subjects without an ounce of critical thinking or review? Wait, we already have the answer on that….

    • You don’t think it would be germane to the story if it contained a quote from the people who posted the emails denying that they received them from Higgins or his people? I beg to differ. 

      •  I believe an appropriate story would be – Paladino’s Animosity is Misplaced…

        That, followed up with the proof.  Whether Paladino is right or wrong, the animosity exists between him and Higgins, and that was what McCarthy’s column was about.

  • John (not McCain)

    On the subject of Paladino, after my lunchtime walk earlier today I find myself with a question:  why do Ellicott Development employees get to stand around on Main Street in front of one of his properties smoking weed with impunity?

  • After all the back and forth and neigh-saying here regarding who sent what and is it relevant to Bob McCarthy’s “article”, I will just go out and confirm that Brian Higgins didn’t send Alan those emails.  I did. 
    You see, I was the horse in the “bestiality” video. Me and my human girlfriend broke out the video cam, and taped ourselves doing a little hankey pankey. So, I decided to email it to Carl Paladino, since I figured it would “help keep his mind active”, if you know what I mean!  BUT HE FORWARDED IT OUT TO ALL HIS FRIENDS!  Well, after my girlfriend sobered up on her meth binge, she was horrified to see that she was pictured all over the place! After all, she is a modest and demure lady of couth! So, she left me. And I blame Carl…So, I did what any self respecting horse did, I contacted the liberal media smear machine WNYMedia.net. Specifically Alan, who I go way back with, as he likes to bet “on the ponies” and he exposed the horse meat scandal at Valenti’s.  

    Anyways, there ya go.  Am I a hero? Not the one Buffalo deserves, but the one it needed in 2010. But I can take it.  I’m am your silent guardian, your watchful protector… The Dark Horse…

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