Albany, NY – Newspaper Accused Of Pressuring State Senator To Buy Ads

Albany, NY – New York State Senate majority leader Joseph L. Bruno claims the Albany Times Union pressured him to buy advertising in exchange for favorable coverage, asking the local district attorney to investigate.

Bruno, the leading Republican in the state, asked the Albany County district attorney to investigate The Times Union, claiming a newspaper representative on Tuesday sought to extort him to buy advertisements.
Bruno said that on Tuesday a Times Union advertising salesman contacted Mark Hansen, a Bruno spokesman, and “encouraged him to buy advertising in the newspaper as a way of counteracting The Times Union’s coverage of Mr. Bruno.”

The newspaper’s publisher, Mark E. Aldam, denied the allegation.
Aldam said in a statement that the senator’s staff had mischaracterized the call. He said the salesman had “merely offered Mr. Bruno the chance to respond to a campaign advertisement taken out on the newspaper’s Web site by the state Democratic Party, attacking Mr. Bruno and Senate Republicans.”

“To imply any breach of integrity by The Times Union strikes me as an unfair attempt by Senator Bruno’s office to redirect attention from recent public reports toward the media company responsible for the initial reporting,” Aldam added. [mediainfo]