Good morning, it’s Monday.
In the first part of the 20+ years I worked as a reporter – the 10 I spent in print and bourgeoning online journalism – I didn’t think much about how my job might impact my personal safety.
Sure, I was aware that reporting could be dangerous, but I assumed that was more the case for, say, war correspondents, or people who worked in countries that lack the freedom of speech and expression that we enjoy here in the U.S.
It wasn’t until I became an on-air political anchor and started receiving a fairly regular stream of extremely personal, vitriolic and sometimes downright threatening emails and phone calls that it dawned on me that being in the public eye in any capacity could, in fact, put my life at risk.
I got a lot of hate mail during the almost 10 years I spent anchoring “Capital Tonight” for what is now Spectrum News. Some of it was just the nature of the beast – the country was becoming increasingly divided and politics is a trigger for a lot of people who feel very strongly about a host of hot-button issues, from abortion rights to gun control.
When a person is on your TV screen, night after night, you feel like you know them and deserve to weigh in on their looks or their words or their weight or what have you. Plus, shooting off a nasty email from the anonymity of your computer or phone or leaving a voicemail without giving your name requires zero accountability or thought.
Some of it, admittedly, was me.
I was probably too edgy and before my time for TV news, which, back then, was still very formulaic. Creativity, personality and deviating from the script was not encouraged.
These days, with everyone trying to outdo one another by saying shocking things in hopes of going viral, I guess I might have been better suited to being an on-air personality. But at the time, as a print reporter-turned-anchor, I didn’t fit the mold at all – certainly not in the way I looked, but also not in the way I conducted interviews or my commentary.
Toward the tail end of my journalism career, I received an email threat that was extremely violent and antisemitic in nature. The station took it seriously – in large part, I believe, because the threat had been sent to the general inbox and a lot of people saw, and were upset, by it. The State Police were called and an investigation was launched, though since the threat had been emailed by someone using a mobile hotspot, they never were able to determine where it came from or who sent it.
By that time, it was clear that reporters were no longer simply bystanders covering the news, but could themselves be targeted.
In 2015, two reporters in Virginia were shot dead during a live newscast. In 2018, five people were killed when a gunman opened fire at the offices of the Capital Gazette, a daily newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland. In 2022, Las Vegas Review-Journal investigative reporter Jeff German was stabbed to death by former Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles, who, two years later, was sentenced to at least 28 years in prison for that crime. (I’m sure there are other incidents I missed here; these are the ones that stick in my mind).
I got the news alert about the White House Correspondents Dinner shooting as I was driving back from a friend’s birthday party in Manhattan. My husband has asked earlier that evening if I ever attended the event, which sometimes is jokingly referred to as the “nerd prom“, and I – a little wistfully – said “no”, but still held out hope that I might one day be invited.
Now, I can honestly say I am glad I wasn’t there. And I also would think twice about attending if I were asked in the future.
While it appears now that the president and top cabinet members were the targets of the alleged gunman, I am pretty sure he would have shot indiscriminately had he been able to get into the ballroom. Pretty much all of the D.C. reporting elite was on hand, and the loss could have been significant.
Thankfully, the Secret Service acted swiftly and effectively. I am relieved at the outcome, but also deeply sobered. People sometimes ask me if I miss reporting and being on-air. I know people think that job is glamorous, but truthfully it is a grind. You have to really love it, hustle like crazy, and look good while doing it. Unless you’re operating at the very highest levels of the business, the pay doesn’t come close to compensating the amount of time, energy and stress this work requires.
There are some days I think that going back to reporting might be fun. The impact that you can have – even in today’s greatly diminished mainstream news landscape – can be significant. But, right now, I think the risks far outweigh the benefits. And that makes me sad and not a little frightened for the state of our country and our democracy.
It’s going to be a beautiful spring day, making up for some of the chill we experienced over the weekend. Temperatures will soar into the low 70s and skies will be mostly sunny.
In the headlines…
The suspect detained after a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner is believed to have made it past the outermost layer of security at the event at which President Donald Trump was scheduled to speak because he was a hotel guest.
The shooting suspect was identified as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, CA, highly educated tutor and amateur video game developer opposed to Trump’s policies. Officials said that Allen was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives.
Trump said that the gunman had written a “manifesto,” as investigators continued to examine his writings and other evidence to piece together the motive for an attack that appeared to be aimed at the president and his top aides.
Allen railed against Trump administration policies and referred to himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin” in writings sent to family members minutes before the shooting that authorities increasingly believe was politically motivated.
The mayhem proved, once and for all, Trump and his allies argue, the need for the new White House ballroom that the president has made a top priority since at least October.
The Justice Department (DOJ) pressed the preservation group suing the White House over President Trump’s ballroom project to drop the lawsuit in the wake of Saturday’s shooting.
Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, urged lawmakers to create a bipartisan national commission for political violence following the shooting at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.
King Charles III’s upcoming trip to the U.S. is going ahead as planned after Saturday’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner, according to Buckingham Palace.
A change in New York Election Law late last year was supposed to curb ballot line hijacking. But a young candidate’s entry into a state Assembly district race has led to a lawsuit being filed in state Supreme Court that may offer an early test of the new statute.
Adrienne Adams, the former New York City Council speaker, is now the other half of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s so-called “two moms” slate as her running mate for lieutenant governor.
New York officials are suing the Trump administration to recover more than $73 million in highway funding, in a fight over noncitizens’ access to commercial drivers licenses.
Some 460,000 New Yorkers set to lose their health insurance due to federal cuts would get a lifeline from Albany under a proposal to use state money to preserve their coverage.
Hochul ordered flags at state government buildings to be lowered to half-staff until sunset April 25 in memory of retired environmental conservation police officer Ronald J. Bosela.
Two corrections officers who became sick after being exposed to an unknown substance at Mohawk Correctional Facility are sharing new hope for change after a recent conversation with Hochul.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Hochul’s controversial proposal for a pied-à-terre tax in New York City could bring a wave of legal battles from wealthy New Yorkers to avoid new levies, according to experts.
GOP gubernatorial hopeful Bruce Blakeman slammed Mamdani as a Manhattan elitist who is failing the outer boroughs during a rally yesterday at the site of a planned Brooklyn homeless shelter
Economists and real estate agents are calling London’s taxation of wealthy property owners a cautionary tale for New York, where leaders have endorsed a second-home tax.
King Charles is expected to meet Mamdani in New York during his visit next week. The unlikely duo will both attend a wreath laying at the 9/11 memorial in downtown Manhattan on Wednesday.
Mamdani has extended his campaign of making soccer more affordable by partnering with two-time NWSL Champions Gotham FC, releasing 1,000 tickets priced at $5 for the club’s May 9 match against Boston Legacy at Sports Illustrated Stadium.
Mamdani has less than a week to release an updated spending plan for the coming year. That’s a tall task when, for the third year in a row, the state is weeks late in approving its own budget, leaving a multibillion-dollar question mark for the city.
The first four months of Mamdani’s mayorship suggest that Hochul and Menin will stall and block enough of the mayor’s agenda that it won’t come close to being fully implemented.
Mamdani’s video celebrating the pied-à-terre tax plan outside a prominent billionaire’s home is sparking a backlash from members of New York City’s business community who say the mayor went too far in an era of increasing political violence.
New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin and her allies are weighing their options after Mamdani said he would veto a bill that would require the NYPD to create and publicize plans to deploy security perimeters around educational facilities during protests.
Unlike the related “buffer zone” bill pertaining to houses of worship – which Mamdani said he’d let go into effect – 175-B didn’t pass with a veto-proof majority.
In his veto message, the first of his tenure, Mamdani said he believed the bill could be improperly applied to “workers protesting ICE, or college students demanding their school divest from fossil fuels or demonstrating in support of Palestinian rights.”
“[The bill] is not a narrow public safety measure; it is a piece of legislation that has alarmed much of the labor movement, reproductive rights groups, and immigration advocates, among others, across this city,” Mamdani wrote.
A coalition of major Jewish organizations blasted Mamdani’s decision, calling it “deeply disappointing” and a “profound failure of City Hall to demonstrate to all New Yorkers that our safety is a priority.”
Mamdani condemned Staten Island NYPD officer James Giovansanti’s 547 speed- and red-light camera tickets as “unacceptable”, but stopped short of committing to discipline the lawman in his first comments since Streetsblog exposed Giovansanti’s record.
The city’s longstanding war on cars has kicked into another gear under Mamdani. His administration has considered or adopted plans that could make it harder and costlier to drive in the five boroughs for the typical motorist, but easier to ride mass transit.
Mamdani is establishing a new office to fight deed theft in the wake of the violent arrest of a New York City councilmember who was protesting outside a brownstone that residents say was stolen.
Members of the Turkish-American community gathered at Times Square in New York City to protest a social media post by Mamdani regarding the 1915 events during the Ottoman Empire and the Karabakh conflict, on April 26, 2026.
Menin announced a set of proposed changes in city housing regulations aimed at creating up to 35,000 new units on small lots across the city by cutting “unnecessary regulations and red tape,” according to her office.
Menin is pursuing complex legislation related to home health aides that has stirred some of New York’s most powerful forces. She signed on before she was speaker, but three months into her stewardship of the 51-member body it’s causing her major problems.
Rep. Nellie Pou and Rep. Rob Menendez of New Jersey joined Rep. Jerry Nadler and Rep. Dan Goldman of New York in writing a letter to FIFA President Gianni Infantino demanding that FIFA subsidize World Cup transit costs in New Jersey.
The MTA pulled out all the stops during an outing last week for New York City kids with autism, giving them a chance to drive trains using sophisticated simulators and check out a vintage bus.
Police have arrested a Brooklyn teen they say shot and killed a 15-year-old boy at a Southeast Queens playground earlier this month. Zahir Davis, 18, has been charged with murder in the death of 15-year-old Jaden Pierre of South Richmond Hill.
State Police are investigating what they described as a “pedestrian versus train incident” on an Amtrak rail line at the Rhinecliff Train Station.
The Capital Region housing market is beginning to show early signs of its typical spring awakening. However, persistent inventory shortages continue to shape the landscape for both buyers and sellers.
For the first time in the 38-year history of Park Playhouse, the company will not present a mainstage musical during July at the Washington Park amphitheater, due lost city funding and increasingly adverse weather trends, according to those involved.
The Albany International Airport held an opening ceremony for the first completed public space in the airport’s $100 million main terminal expansion project on Friday in Colonie.
More than a dozen local and state officials worked through the day Friday to save an after-school program for 4-year-olds after the Albany JCC said the program was closing immediately.
The owners of Pearl Street Diner, Lucia Mitsios and her husband, Anthony Mitsios, say they hosted the “Cook-Off for a Cause” fundraiser because they have it in their hearts to “give and help.”
Saying the city’s Design Review Board and Planning Board hold “a tremendous amount of power,” Saratoga Springs Mayor John Safford said he wants to change the Unified Development Ordinance that protects the city’s historic character.
The Adirondack Mountain Club will need to return a portion of a $303,960 federal grant it spent on infrastructure upgrades to the Cascade Welcome Center just outside Lake Placid because it is selling the property.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
