video At this point it's really tempting fate to ask what else could go wrong with New York State politics. Just now Rep. Charlie Rangel announced he was 'temporarily' stepping down as chairman of the Ways and Means committee. Yesterday, Mort Zuckerman, who was rumored to have pushed Harold Ford out of his run for Senate dropped out of the race. And then there is David Paterson. Oh David Paterson. (more...)

Citing family and work engagements New York Daily News publisher and owner Mort Zuckerman dropped out of the Senate race tonight, various sources are reporting. His official statement reads:

"At this time, it is very difficult to see how I can devote the necessary time to either a campaign, or to working in Washington, if I were to win."

Anyone else feel like New York politics has turned into some sort of evil game of roulette? With yesterday's news that Harold Ford would not be throwing his hat in the New York senate ring (carpetbagging is harder than it looks folks!) comes a whole new round of gaming who might be willing to give it a shot. Enter (again) Daily News and US News & World Report publisher Mort Zuckerman. Even the New York Post thinks this is a good idea. (more...)

High-rolling real estate player and New York Daily News publisher Mortimer B. Zuckerman may have politics in his future, according to a New York Times report this weekend. Zuckerman sees the Senate seat held by Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand as "vulnerable," but might run as a Republican or independent -- despite his known political leanings -- to avoid having to pay for a primary campaign. (more...)

The media establishment in New York may frequently feel that the dismantling of their industry has reached what could be described as biblical proportions of the "dogs and cats living together" type. Be that as it may, it apparently is not yet bad enough for the New York Post and the New York Daily News to consider "printing together," despite the fact such an arrangement would feasibly be to their mutual benefit. (more...)

It's difficult to follow print journalism these days without feeling bashed over the head by the irony of the term. Most of the big stories are either about closures or firings (Gawker reports that AP layoffs may be coming today), and what positive news there is tends to be about innovative moves online.

But according to the New York Times, one man is doubling down on print: Daily News publisher Mort Zuckerman. (more...)

"We're talking to ourselves. It's like we have built this conservative ghetto — like the Warsaw Ghetto — where we have put ourselves ideologically in a box, and we shout and scream and yell at each other, but we need to get out and we need to start talking to the center of America where elections are won ." — Joe Scarborough on MSNBC's Morning Joe, in discussion with Sam Tanenhaus about his latest book, The Death of Conservatism, on the echo chamber of current Conservative thought, and how it's totally like being walled off in an overcrowded, disease-ridden plot of land where Germans went on killing sprees and then deported people to concentration camps. (more...)

When the summer news slump hits medialand and there is no Montauk Monster to fill post quotas (and the Sotomayor hearings are not quite the MJ circus C-SPAN hopes them to be) nothing quite fits the bill like speculation on the evil machinations of Rupert Murdoch. (more...)