NAME-CHECK

Obama Aides 'Furious' at Gov. Paterson

Say he shouldn't have dropped Obama's name in radio race rant.

President Obama's aides sent a sharply worded message to New York Gov. David Paterson, reprimanding him for dropping Obama's name into an angry speech on the radio about the media's anti-black bias, the New York Post reports. "The next victim on the list—and you see it coming—is President Barack Obama," Paterson said of the media bias, referring to Obama's efforts to reform health care. Within hours of the show airing, White House political director Patrick Gaspard called the governor's deputy secretary to ask why Paterson "was dragging the president into" his troubles. Paterson is New York's first black governor and has suffered abysmal popularity ratings, which he suggested might have been "orchestrated" by an anti-black media on the show. On Friday, Paterson released a clarifying statement about his remarks. "What I did point out was that certain media outlets have engaged in coverage that exploits racial stereotypes," he said.