Create new file: GOV-TV
It must be frustrating to go around the state, raising the alarm about New York's sorry fiscal outlook, and draw so little attention. If you did it, you'd be written off. But if you were the governor?
The most likely reason for the deaf ear much of the media has turned to Gov. David Paterson's Paul 
Revere act is that, so far, he's not added any ideas about what to do about it. Maybe that will change today.
Official word that Gov. David A. Paterson will take to the airwaves tonight made page A8 of today's Buffalo News and page C12 of The New York Times, behind the obits and the story about the forecast of a $482 billion federal deficit. And in The Times, Paterson has to share the story with similar bad news from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The story gets front-page play in Albany's Times Union, The Post Star in Glens Falls and in AM New York - the latter complete with this Photoshopped illustration that makes both the governor and the newspaper look foolish. But it might get someone's attention.
The real attention-getter will not be the statement of the problem so much as a list of possible solutions, all of them likely to be painful to someone. The Executive Chamber [the official name of the New York governor's office] promises some, according to The Times: Risa B. Heller, a Paterson spokeswoman, said that the governor would do more than merely warn of worse times ahead. “The governor will put forth proposals to both get the state’s fiscal house in order and ease the burden on New Yorkers,” Ms. Heller said.
The governor will speak at 5:10 p.m. WNED's Think Bright cable channel will carry it live. Its broadcast arm, Channel 17, will run it at 11:30, after the kids have gone to bed. I'd bet that most commercial stations won't carry the governor's speech live -- no police tape -- but, like newspapers and the governor's office itself, will post it on their Web sites. Which is why being on TV ain't the big deal it used to be.
--George Pyle/Editorial Writer
