Footage from MCDC endorsement of Jon Powers
Robert Harding has YouTube footage of the MCDC press conference where the Monroe County Democratic Committee endorsed Jon Powers (from The Albany Project).
At the end of the clip, NBC 10 reporter Ray Levato hassles Powers a bit about David Bellavia’s Tiger Woods comments, as Angel described earlier. It is not clear what is going here. Perhaps Mr. Levato had Powers confused with Bellavia, but there is also a more cynical explanation: that Levato is doing the bidding of Bellavia, whose wife also works at NBC 10. We’ve contacted Mr. Levato for an explanation of his strange comments, but we haven’t heard anything back yet. If you’d like to contact Mr. Levato as well, you can do so here.
Let’s hope this was an innocent mistake and not an example of extreme partisanship.
In my experience on the Massa calls, it’s odd for a reporter to argue the other candidates’ position directly. Usually they cast it as a quote from the other side, e.g., “Bellavia says it was just a harmless sports comment” and look for a reaction.
Also, the hostile tone stood out. Powers’ “mulligan” comment was probably the mildest thing he could have said about the whole matter — it didn’t merit the harsh questioning.
Mr Levato is either a bad reporter who didn’t know who he was interviewing or an unethical one who was doing Bellavia’s wife’s bidding… which one is it Mr Levato?