Governor blacklists reporter over ‘biased’ coverage

NEW YORK–According to The (Albany) Times Union, New York Governor George Pataki in mid-August ordered all state agencies to stop talking to a New York City journalist due to her alleged bias in covering the administration.

The subject of the blacklist is Andrea Bernstein, a political writer for the New York Observer, a weekly newspaper based in Manhattan. The Times Union quoted Michael McKeon, Pataki’s press secretary, as saying that “We are ready, willing and able to deal with any legitimate reporter with the New York Observer and continue to have a working relationship,” but that Bernstein “is clearly a partisan, whose aim is political.”

McKeon further claims to have learned from “credible journalists” that Bernstein wants to “destroy” the governor, and has political aspirations of her own.