Winners and Losers 05/16/14

We could have filled our Losers list this week just with lawmakers exposed in City & State's investigation of the Moreland Commission's probe into the personal use of campaign funds by lawmakers, but that would have crowded out all of the other big stories of the week, so we decided to take a pass and not single out any of them for a shaming. In a week when an earthquake hit the country's most prestigious newsroom and a celebrity wound up in jail just for riding a bike the wrong way down a street, there were plenty of candidates to choose from in selecting your Winners and Losers of the week.

 

WINNERS

Dean Baquet -  It must be nice to walk into work on a Wednesday and suddenly be handed the keys to one of the largest and most influential newsrooms in the country. Baquet is the beneficiary of Jill Abramson’s ouster as executive editor of The New York Times, becoming the paper’s first African-American to hold that title. Baquet has the investigative chops and reporting expertise that come with 30 years of experience in the business, and is reportedly well-liked by his colleagues. Then again, judging by what happened to Abramson, the only person he should worry about liking him is the publisher.

Brian Chesky - Airbnb’s CEO is on a roll this week—beating back a subpoena from state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman who has been targeting the increasingly prominent company over concerns that some are using the service to operate illegal hotels. A state court said the request was irrelevant to the AG’s inquiry, but Schneiderman’s office isn’t going to be letting Airbnb off the hook anytime soon. He is expected to reissue a subpoena shortly to address another technical matter—but for this week Chesky is a winner.

Alice Greenwald - The director of the National September 11 Memorial Museum, which opens its doors to the public next week, won universal praise for the strength of the long-awaited museum's design and presentation. President Obama honored the new museum as a place to remember the sacrifice of those who died in the terrorist attacks. The Daily News’ Denis Hamill said it was “put together with respect, heartfelt emotion, and a dignified beauty.” And the Times wrote that the museum “has done something powerful.”

Christopher Moss - Until this week, if you asked most state residents about Chemung County Sheriff Christopher Moss they would have responded, “Who?" and "Where?” Oh, what a difference a few days make! Moss was picked as the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor and will saddle up with gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino at the top of this year’s ballot. Moss’s profile shot up the instant Astorino announced his pick prior to the midweek Republican State Convention, where Moss officially stepped into the limelight. While Republicans seem to be high on the sheriff, his win comes with one little caveat: Astorino is still fighting for name recognition across the state, so it might be a while (if ever) before Chris from Chemung becomes more than the answer to a trivia question.

Scott Stringer - Stringer seems to be taking to his role as designated thorn in Bill de Blasio's side, pulling the mayor aside at his birthday reception at Gracie Mansion to quibble with his executive budget. Stringer evidently felt de Blasio had gotten too cute with how he proposed to pay for the $725 million in retroactive pay owed to city teachers, leading the mayor to amend his budget. Stringer has thus far been a revelation in his post as chief fiscal officer, reinforcing the notion that despite being philosophically aligned with the mayor, his foremost responsibility is to the taxpayers. 

 

LOSERS

Alec Baldwin - Another week, another Alec Baldwin headline. This time, the famously volatile actor was arrested for riding his bicycle against traffic, failing to provide ID, and perhaps most importantly, screaming and yelling at the police who cited him. You know, the usual. Baldwin was charged with disorderly conduct, and later took to Twitter, writing: “New York City is a mismanaged carnival of stupidity that is desperate for revenue and anxious to criminalize behavior once thought benign.” Bad news for Baldwin, though, is always welcome news for a gleeful New York press corps. This also might be an opportunity for Bill de Blasio to use Baldwin schadenfreude to fuel his tough-on-traffic Vision Zero plan.

Earlene Hooper - When is a mock legislative session not a mock legislative session? When Assemblywoman Earlene Hooper is involved. Hooper, who is also the Assembly deputy speaker, blew up at one of Assemblywoman Deborah Glick’s interns, who according to news reports proposed a parliamentary action of which Hooper disapproved. As a result, the cantankerous Long Island lawmaker was ordered out of the chamber, likely to the embarrassment of all present. On the bright side, the young people present at the mock session learned a valuable lesson about decorum in politics.

Sandra Lee - The Food Network star has built an impressive brand and an impressive Westchester County home. Guess which one needed permits to build that she didn’t have? Lee was outed by the Journal News this week for apparently running afoul of the New Castle town building inspector for not securing permits for various renovations to the grand home she shares with Gov. Andrew Cuomo. That failure became the butt of jokes at this week’s Republican State Convention, notably from Rob Astorino. The gubernatorial candidate twice took verbal jabs at the governor and his gal, once during Wednesday’s dinner (you can drive by the Cuomo house while in Westchester and watch workers sneak out the backdoor, he said) and again in his gubernatorial nomination acceptance speech (his wife wants a new kitchen, which they found out they’ll need to obtain permits for). It’s not clear how much those jokes will actually affect Cuomo. But the governor can’t be happy that the fodder was served on a silver platter to Republicans just like a batch of cupcakes from a dessert-themed TV show episode.

Rasheida Smith - Right now the last thing you want is your name in the papers connected to Ruben Wills. The City Councilman was last week's big loser after he was arrested for funneling money to a nonprofit that appeared to be profiting mostly himself. This week Smith was tied to that scheme in the tabloids. She says she just did bookkeeping and didn't know what was going on. Be that as it may, Smith can't be happy her name is being dragged through the mud, especially since she is the campaign manager for Rep. Charles Rangel, who is facing the toughest releection fight of his career.

Arthur Sulzberger Jr. - The New York Times publisher had some explaining to do this week after he suddenly pushed out Jill Abramson as executive editor, leaving many in the newsroom and general news media scratching their heads. It is still unclear what exactly precipitated Abramson’s ouster, but suffice it to say it’s not a good look for a newspaper to abruptly fire a well-respected female executive editor (the first in the Times’ history) after a mere three years on the job. Sulzberger has effectively made Abramson something of a journalism martyr, especially with females making up only a third of the newsroom, meaning there are undoubtedly some unhappy women at the Gray Lady.

 

 

WINNERS:
LOSERS: