Just Release The Story Already!

Jillian Bandes | February 11, 2010 9:19 AM

It's been two years, so it's about time for a big scandal to break about New York's governor. Lo and behold, the New York Times has such a story about Gov. David Paterson — except they're not saying what it is. Instead, they're just talking about what they plan on writing, as is everyone else, including Paterson, who is getting pretty scared right about now. After all, the article is supposed to be a career-ending bombshell.... we think.

Here is the New York Times in an anonymous blog post on it's own blog:

One of his possible Republican rivals, Rick Lazio, has called for the article no one knows exists to be published or for The Times to say it doesn’t exist, all to clear the good name of the governor and end “the psychological warfare” against him.

Mr. Paterson on Tuesday met for 90 minutes with a reporter from The Times, and when asked later at a news conference if he had been asked about the most salacious of the rumors, he said he had not.

“No such questions related to any of that information was asked of me at any interview,” he said. “The article will be written about other subjects.”

But Mr. Paterson then criticized the paper for not formally tackling the issue of the story everyone is talking about that doesn’t exist.

“They don’t seem to be interested in addressing it or doing anything about it — I think it’s appalling,” he said.

Noticeably absent in this entry is any reference to the Times releasing or not releasing the actual piece, taking self-referential journalism to a new level of meta.