The Progressive website The Intercept, which had revealed a trumped up sexual misconduct claim against a Massachusetts gay Democrat last year, also investigated Ms. Kims allegations, calling former Stringer campaign aides. They found that a number of widely reported details from Ms. Pastors' statement, but not Ms. Kims core allegations, were incorrect. Mike McGuire, a long-time New York politician who knew both Mr. Stringer as well as Ms. Kim, told me that he had been waiting to speak on the record about the factual errors in Ms. Kim's lawyers account. However, he said that I was the second reporter to call him after Ms. Glueck. Ms. Kim had, however, been transparent about her motives and wanted the voters to be aware of it.Although it is easy to attribute the lack of interest in the story to the hollowed-out local media corps, this is not the case. The New York Mayors Race received extensive and sometimes ambitious coverage. This was as good as I've seen since 2001, and even more from newer outlets such as Politico and The City. Eric Adams, the winner of the first round vote, was inspected by reporters and allowed to peer into his fridge.Andrea Gabor, in an article published in Columbia Journalism Review, examined the coverage of the race. She found that news organizations had stopped covering Stringer as a top-tier contender. She suggested that journalists reexamine their judgments on how to cover Stringer and other candidates in the wake of Stringer's allegations.According to Mr. Stringers' aides, they told me in May that they were in talks about former endorsers returning, and with Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, the biggest progressive movement star. They also learned from an allegation made by another woman, that Mr. Stringer had sexually harassed her 30 years ago when she worked at a bar for him. The Times confirmed Teresa Logan's account. The next day Ms. Ocasio-Cortez supported Maya Wiley who finished second after in-person voting was over. She stated that there was no time left and that progressives needed to unite. This suggested that she had decided on the second allegation.The strange thing is that there's no consensus among voters about how Mr. Stringers support should have been affected by decades-old allegations. Governor Andrew Cuomo, New York's governor, has faced far more recent claims by his own aides. Even two of the lawmakers who dropped support for Mr. Stringer said that they are still grappling with the decision, their roles and the role of the media. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez appeared to have a similar concern when she disclosed that she had ranked Mr. Stringer number two on her ballot.Alessandra Biaggi, State Senator, said that while the moment was incredibly difficult, she felt that her integrity was being compromised by remaining with Mr. Stringer. She stated that she would have ranked Mr. Stringer among the top choices if she was a New York City voter and that she wished there had been more nuance in public discussions about allegations of sexual misconduct.Yuh-Line Niou from Manhattan was a state assemblywoman. She told me that she felt the media unfairly placed pressure on survivors to speak out. She also said that her denial showed that he came from a time where people didn't talk about what it means to be human and that perfection is required somehow.
