Folks,
Its appear that we have gotten New York Governor Andrew Cuomo all shook up.
Today, the Albany Times-Union followed up on our scoop that Cuomo was sitting on a bill that would grant unemployment benefits to 3,400 striking GM workers.
Cuomo’s senior advisor and spokesman Rich Azzopardi told the Albany Times-Union that Payday Report is “a piece of garbage” that “is not worth the server storage it’s taking up.”
Here is an excerpt from the Albany Times-Union:
An article from the labor blog Payday Report accuses the governor of sitting on legislation passed this year, which would allow striking employees to collect unemployment benefits after one week. As the law currently stands, workers in New York have to be on strike for seven weeks before they can collect unemployment benefits.
“The premise of the story you’re trying to follow is flawed, intellectually dishonest, and should not be called journalism,” Cuomo’s senior advisor Rich Azzopardi told a Times Union reporter, in response to an inquiry about why the governor hasn’t signed the bill.
But Azzopardi acknowledged the central premise of Payday Report’s story is correct: the governor hasn’t signed the bill, he said, because there’s a backlog of 600 pieces of legislation awaiting his signature.
“The bill remains under review,” Azzopardi said. “There are more than 600 pieces of legislation still pending that counsel’s offices is still going through.
“We’re going through them,” Azzopardi added. “It’s our responsibility to make sure the bills do what they say they do.”
Azzopardi called Payday Report’s story “a piece of garbage” that “is not worth the server storage it’s taking up.” Asked for a response, the article’s author Mike Elk said he stands by the story.
“Good thing the server space is cheap,” Elk said.
You can read the rest of the article here at the Albany Times-Union.
It would appear that Payday is having a conversation if Cuomo’s top aide is willing to denounce us in these terms
