Staten Island Advance Had The Wool Pulled Over Their Eyes by Nicole Malliotakis
I reported a mistake in an article to the editor of the Staten Island Advance. A law that was recently passed banning pet tattoos was credited to Nicole Malliotakis, when it should have been credited to Manhattan Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal. The article was published on March 11th and can be seen here. Malliotakis is a co-sponsor of the bill, but the article in the Staten Island Advance credits her alone. There are many co-sponsors of bill including Brooklyn representatives – Alex Brook-Krasny and Colton – yet neither of those men jumped at taking the credit from Rosenthal. Malliotakis was not even part of the bill at the beginning of March. How do I know? I have been watching Ms. Malliotakis for awhile because some things haven’t been adding up.
On March 6th, when another animal lover asked Malliotakis what happened to her support to stop pet tattoos, I looked up the bill and Malliotakis was not even a co-sponsor of the bill at the time. I tweeted this:
When I saw the article, I asked Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis to correct the article because it was her press release which deceived the Staten Island Advance into making the mistake. You can see Malliotakis’ press release here on her site which she stated she introduced the bill. The bill was a great idea, but the idea was Linda Rosenthal’s. Some people will say it’s Malliotakis’ bill because she introduced it in 2012. That is partially true = she reintroduced Rosenthal’s 2011 bill – see the original bill here made by Linda Rosenthal.
When Malliotakis failed to correct the error, I wrote an e-mail to Judy Randall, the Staten Island Advance writer of the article. I didn’t receive a response. Later, I found out Ms. Randall no longer works for the Staten Island Advance.
I wrote to the editor, Brian Laline. And he responded at first that the article was correct. When I showed him evidence that Linda Rosenthal was the original creator of the bill he said he would bring it to the “political person.” I took this as being a normal response and waited.
Strangest part of the whole exchange – Mr. Laline tells me that Ms. Malliotakis introduced the bill on March 11th. He asked me when Ms. Rosenthal introduced it. I guess he was surprised to see Rosenthal introduced the bill on March 6th and before that in 2011. But he could have looked that up himself with a quick search using google or Suri. Shouldn’t the media want to check on a source rather than just going by a press release?
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When I didn’t see an update, I sent another e-mail. Brian Laline explained his son got married and he took a week off. (OKAYYYYY – if a woman ever used their wedding as an excuse at work would they still have a job?) Anyway, here Laline says that he will address it. So some action is going to take place, right? I wouldn’t be writing this blog post if it did.
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Why does it matter who wrote the bill? Because the woman who wrote it, Linda Rosenthal didn’t even get named in the article. Would this happen to a male politician?
Time Magazine , CNN and The Daily News credited Rosenthal with the passage of the bill, yet somehow the Staten Island Advance and Mr. Laline think it okay to leave Ms. Rosenthal out of the article.
It’s fine with Nicole Malliotakis if the paper prints incorrect information in her favor because she is in an election year and she is hoping this will help her. Yet, if Malliotakis had done enough for our area, she would have corrected the mistake? Maybe she isn’t crediting Ms. Rosenthal because Rosenthal is a Democrat and Malliotakis is a Republican who doesn’t want to see Democrats being successful. This type of behavior isn’t acceptable for women today. When her Ms. Rosenthal’s name is deliberately left out of the press release and the article, there is a problem.
If the mistake was about a male politician, it would been corrected immediately!
It is wrong for a newspaper editor to hid the truth from people!
What I originally thought was a mistake by a writer who didn’t do their research and would have been corrected by a editor with integrity is actually just a double-standard for a newspaper editor to avoid giving the correct credit to a woman who did the work!
When we failed to correct the mistakes – when we know the truth – we are part of the problem.
I’m embarrassed that Malliotakis is a representative in Bay Ridge and didn’t correct the mistake immediately. As a woman she should be promoting the accomplishments of her peers, instead of claiming them as her own! Malliotakis is a also a hypocrite because she recently retweeted this:
Both the Brian Lalaine and Malliotakis should issue an apology to Ms. Rosenthal for diminishing her accomplishment.
Hugs,
marlene
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