With the midterm election just weeks away, Republican nominee for Congress Anthony Constantino is continuing to have a tense relationship with the journalists covering New York's 21st Congressional District.
Capital Region Bureau Chief Grant Ashley spoke to Daily Gazette politics reporter Ted Remsnyder about an article he wrote that drew Constantino's ire, and about the role local journalists play in a changing media environment.
Click the play button to listen to the full conversation.
Read Ted Remsnyder's reporting here: Gendebien signs pledge denouncing socialism, trails Constantino in internal poll
See the full interview transcript below.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Editor's note: This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
Ashley: We're here to talk about a recent article you wrote, where the Democratic candidate in the 21st district for Congress, Blake Gendebien, campaigned with Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon. In your article, you have this quote from Anthony Constantino, who's the Republican candidate. Walk me through your thought process on how you presented that quote.
Remsnyder: Yeah, so we're working on a story about Blake Gendebien who had signed a pledge. It was kind of a centrist Democratic pledge. And we asked the Cosatino campaign if he would speak about it or give a comment, and they sent in the comment that you mentioned, the claim that Gendebien had campaigned with Mary Gay Scanlon, representative from Pennsylvania, and that she supported surgeries for kids under 13. So I researched it, and there was no evidence that she publicly advocated for that. So we included his quote in the story, but we fact-checked it and mentioned that she has not publicly advocated for that. But in a congressional hearing last year, she did say that access to gender affirming care is critical to the mental health and well being of trans youth, which could be a wide spectrum of care, not necessarily surgeries, particularly for under the age of 13. So that's what we included in the final story,
Ashley: Right, and then Constantino responded on Facebook in a pair of videos.
Constantino: Guess what? Gender affirming care on prepubescent kids means transgender surgeries. Who's that come from? That's straight from the American Medical Association. Ted, I'm really annoyed that you interrupted me cooking dinner. You just posted the article recently, posting this slime. You're a scumbag.
Ashley: I do want to note that the American Medical Association and other mainstream medical groups have opposed gender affirming surgery for youth. They've supported puberty blockers and other measures that are reversible. You know, social affirmation, right? Letting kids get the haircut they want or wear the clothes that they want. How did you find out about those comments?
Remsnyder: Well, before those comments were posted, it's not unusual for Anthony Constantino to text reporters directly or call them directly when he reads their stories and doesn't like something in it. So that story was posted earlier this week, and then a couple hours after it was posted, I started to get a barrage of texts directly from Constantino about him not being happy with the story, and so I wasn't surprised when the when it spilled over into Facebook and Twitter, etc. I knew something was coming based on his mood.
Ashley: So you were, you know, you were expecting it. What did you make of his public response?
Remsnyder: Well, I think it was inaccurate the things he was saying about me, to say the least, but I'm not that bothered by it. It's just kind of silly season. I mean, some of the stuff there was a bit offensive, but I'm not going to be intimidated by it or anything, so it's just kind of silly to me.
Ashley: I do want to kind of like talk a little bit about how this fits into Constantino's relationship with the media. In one of his videos, he said that the local media covering the district where he's running for Congress, were "stupid" and "corrupt."
Constantino: I'm in politics to stop corruption. The media, you guys think you're the referees of this sport called politics. You don't deserve to be our referees. You're very stupid, corrupt people.
Ashley: What role do you think journalists have in covering politics? Is it a referee? Is it something else?
Remsnyder: I think referee is a good analogy, and kind of like a good referee, if they're doing their job, you're not even going to notice them. You don't want the story to be about you, kind of like the way it became with me this week. But yeah, we're there to call it down the middle, call balls and strikes, and with a story like this, if someone gives us a quote, we're not just going to print it with no context. We're still going to fact check everything. We want to give people their say, of course, but it still has to be put in context and expressed accurately to everyone that's reading it, so they can understand what the reality is.
Ashley: There is polling showing that trust in the media is low, and Constantino did bring that up. What should journalists be doing about that in a world where you know calling balls and strikes can make you unpopular with a large segment of the population?
Remsnyder: Yeah, I think you just have to continue doing your job to the best of your ability and to present the facts. I mean, there's a lot of, I hate to use the term fake news, but there's a lot of stuff on social media that's you know AI that's literally fake or just drivel that's just put out there by, you know, God knows who. There's a lot of fake stuff out there, but you can pretty if you look, you can find the real news sources like WAMC, like the Daily Gazette, like the Times Union, you can find the stuff that's from the real source if you're looking for it.
Ashley: And Constantino did mention, you know, he was like, "We don't need the media anymore. We have social media. We have AI." Are those things going to replace local journalism?
Remsnyder: I don't think so in the long run. I mean, he can say you know he doesn't need the media, but he courts the media. As any campaign is trying to, you know, they're sending out multiple press releases a day. Any candidate can say that, but they always want the media attention.
Ashley: Yeah, and then speaking of courting media attention, we and other newsrooms who cover this congressional district got an email last night from the Constantino campaign to tout his endorsement by the National Rifle Association, and that email led off with a link to a story by Alex Gault at the Watertown Daily Times. We were talking before this, Gault is another one of those journalists who Constantino has called for to be fired and really gone after. So how can these two things coexist? What does that tell us about Constantino and his relationship to the media?
Remsnyder: Well, with most campaigns and most candidates, it's transactional. If you're writing something they don't like, then you're going to be in the crosshairs. And if you're writing something that paints them in a positive light, to their view, then you're their best friend. Or they're going to be praising you or sending out your work. So it's not that different from most campaigns. I mean, this might be a more extreme example, but it's not out of the realm of normality for for most campaigns and most candidates.
Ashley: Yeah, and that's true of politicians on both sides of the aisle. Now that I'm thinking about it, what's different about this campaign is that most politicians won't do multiple Facebook posts about this. They'll just, you know, text you or call you and then yell at you and then move on, right?
Remsnyder: Yeah, and to give Constantino credit, as a candidate, he's more accessible than a lot of candidates, like his opponent Blake Gendebien. You go have to go through their PR person. It's not always easy to get a direct interview with them. A lot of candidates are cautious, obviously. Constantino's people that work for him will try to say like, "don't text him directly, don't call him." But then he'll call and text you directly when he wants to.
Ashley: So you know we have this midterm election fast approaching. It's less than two months out. I know there's been some talk in the media of like, "Oh, can you know Gendebien pull this off? Can a Democrat win this district?" But Republicans still have a very large registration advantage, so it's likely that Constantino goes to Washington, right? How do you see him evolving in that role in his relationship with the media?
Remsnyder: That would be interesting. I mean, Constantino is the favorite in this race. Then he's going to have to deal with a large Washington aggressive press corps. With a freshman congressman, if you're, you know, kind of badgering reporters, it might not go over that well. So it would be interesting. I mean, you probably have a steep learning curve because, again, he's not a traditional candidate who's more of a business person than a traditional politician, so it would definitely be interesting if he goes there in January. That's for sure.
