Posted on 04/11/2007 11:47:35 AM PDT by areafiftyone
Rudy Giuliani's fundraising may not be presidential yet, but his campaign's seat-of-the-pants media manipulation—another requirement for contenders—is looking pretty good. The result: Giuliani grabbed the front pages of two New York City tabloids on the same day by giving one paper's scoop to the other.
On March 23, both the Post and Daily News splashed on their front pages a revelation about Rudy's wife No. 2, the former Judi Nathan. Her revelation? Rudy is not her husband No. 2 but is really her third. Such news would likely hurt Giuliani only among religious conservatives, and they don't like his gay-people-accepting, abortion-tolerating ways anyway.
So when you're finished gasping at the shocker that Rudy's wife had another prior husband in addition to the one we all knew about and didn't care about, share a smirk at the expense of the Daily News, which thought it had scooped the Post.
"This is clearly our story," grumbles Daily News national editor Mark Mooney. "We got it, and they dumped it on the Post."
Mooney's lament is understandable: The News had done weeks of gumshoe reporting—only its story contained a copy of a marriage certificate unearthed in Las Vegas and divorce papers from Florida.
The Post's Andrea Peyser even admitted in her column that Judi's bombshell was dropped in her lap "like a hand grenade." So why did the Post not only have the story up on its website first, but also get credited by the Times the next day for the scoop?
It was quick thinking by Giuliani spokesman Michael McKeon. He had scheduled interviews with the ex-mayor for the News and the Post—in that order—for Thursday, March 22.
"I had no clue what the Daily News had," McKeon swears. "We made them no promises, and they asked for no promises." Not exactly. There actually had been promises made between the Giuliani campaign and reporters from both the Post and News on the day that Judi shared her little secret. Daily News reporter Heidi Evans went into the 2 p.m. interview with Judi agreeing that the profile would be embargoed until Sunday, according to Mooney and Giuliani campaign officials.
"She asked, 'Well, what if she makes news?' " Mooney recalls his reporter saying, to which McKeon replied, " 'Oh, she's not making any news.' He had no intention of releasing that that day."
But during the interview, the News' Evans pressed the issue. "She did not admit that she had been married another time, despite several questions that gave her an opening, until she was asked straight out whether Bruce Nathan was her first husband," Mooney says. "She said, 'No, my first husband was Jeffrey Ross.' "
McKeon, who says the campaign was in control of this info all along, did some quick thinking. So right after that interview, Judi went ahead and spilled the same beans to the Post. And there went the News' exclusive.
Judi showed she's hip to such maneuvers when she told Barbara Walters, on a 20/20 segment that aired at the end of that week, why she had kept the fact hidden from the public.
"So it wasn't that you were keeping it hidden. It's that nobody brought it up?" Walters asked.
"That's correct," Judi replied, blinking nervously. "That's absolutely correct. And, when I was asked, we discussed it. That was my decision."
((((RUDY PING))))
For what it’s worth, The Village Voice Hates Rudy.
Yes they do and so does the NY Daily News, NY Times and sometimes the NY Post! LOL! Not many NY Papers like Rudy.
An excellent endorsement! :)
LOL! And things have not changed either since 9/11. The NY Papers will never like him. But I think Rudy prefers it that way! LOL!
A pissing contest between two NYC papers over who gets a Rudy story.
This is the best you - as a Rudy-bot - can come up with in support of Giuliani?
Meanwhile pissant keeps pouring it on.
Go P/A!
You are joking right? ROFLMAO!!
A51 is not talking to me today. LOL. I can’t blame her. I can be an ogre sometimes.
Yo, pissant. I would guess you're having about the same damping effect as pouring gasoline on a fire.
Or water on an electrical fire. :^))
Oh, I have no illusions that the libs here will quit supporting Rudy. It will take finding out he is having an affair with McGreevey to give them pause. Even then, its doubtful.
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