Other Voices: Is The Times shilling for Spitzer?

Guest blogger Rocco Sacci is a longtime friend and business associate.  We shared office space for many years and worked together on several public relations accounts.  He then became a client, when he moved west to become Director of PR and Communications for a giant logistics company.  I now see him a few times a year, when he heads south to the City from his home in the beautiful upper Hudson Valley to enjoy the opera and meet me for sushi.

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I am interested in knowing if other public relations and media professionals are struck (and perhaps stunned) by the intensity in which The New York Times is giving to the opinions of the disgraced Eliot Spitzer.

It is almost like the Times is running a private public relations campaign for Spitzer's political comeback, what with major feature stories on him almost every week in various sections of the newspapers. A few weeks ago, there was the front page positive profile on Spitzer in the Thursday Styles section. After reading it, I was perplexed to know just what the point of the article was, especially since it appeared in a lifestyle section. Does the Times think we should follow Spitzerism as a lifestyle?

Then, yesterday, on the front page of the Sunday Times, what do we have but another feature interview with the most stupefying headline: Spitzer on Cuomo: He's Driven, Often by Politics. Dah. Cuomo is political! He’s a politician. Is Spitzer really above politics? Not only did Spitzer fail the public trust with his immoral, unlawful acts, not to mention his disloyalty to his wife and family, but here is the Times trying to tell us that we should listen to what this man has to say about proper governance by other elected officials.

Is it me or do others find this strange and intriguing on why the Times has undertaken such an effort for a disgraced, disloyal and should-have-been-convicted of felony scoundrel?  And the Times is not alone. Several other media are providing Spitzer with platforms for his opinions on a wide range of subjects. Why, I wonder? And, in the final analysis, do any of really care what Spitzer has to say about anything?

I'm with Shel Silver: Eliot, shut up.

-- Rocco Sacci

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Editor's note: So that's what Rocco has to say. Anyone have thoughts to add?