Albany Times-Union reporter Brendan Lyons’ coverage of the Signature Pharmacy anabolic steroid scandal is being exposed as little more than a public relations campaign created in conjunction with the Albany County District Attorney’s Office. It appears that “Soares’ loyalist” Brendan Lyons obtained most of his inside stories from the District Attorney David Soares’ Director of Operations, Christian D’Alessandro. D’Allessandro happens to be a close personal friend of Brendan Lyons (”Legal Opinions Support Finding Soares Misused Funds,” October 15).
The Times-Union and Lyons, who is said to have a long time association with Christian D’Allessandro, Soares top deputy…
Albany Times-Union Editor Rex Smith has vigorously defended Brendan Lyons’ use of confidential sources, like his best friend Chris D’Allessandro, in the Signature Pharmacy journalistic investigation into the distribution of performance enhancing drugs. Smith stressed the need for “federal shield laws” to give reporters like Brendan Lyons “constitutional protection against divulging his sources.”
But is the public good best served when a veil of secrecy hides the incestuous relationship between the fourth estate and prosecutor’s office? Should such cozy relationships between local newspapers and the District Attorney’s Office be disclosed especially when it results in stories that uncritically promote the agenda of the District Attorney?
Brendan Lyons has long been accused of being the defacto public relations agent of the Albany County District Attorney Office and the publicity-seeking David Soares. This would explain why the Albany Times-Union was oblivious to the incompetence of David Soares in his case against Signature Pharmacy and unaware of potential civil rights violations by David Soares office. Perhaps, the friendships between the Albany Times-Union and the District Attorney’s Office obscured the objectivity of the steroid reporting?
The revelation about the relationship between Brendan Lyons and Chris D’Allessandro definitely reframes questions about Lyons’ investigative journalism into the growth hormone and anabolic steroid scandal Read more
Brendan Lyons and the Albany Times-Union have received a lot of praise and acclaim for their “investigative journalism” in the coverage of the Signature Pharmacy steroid distribution scandal. Admittedly, they do a throrough job of covering the Albany-based investigation initiated by District Attorney David Soares. But the reporting is anything but well-balanced serving as little more than a public relations branch of the Albany County District Attorney’s Office.
I do not understand how becoming the bedfellow of a publicity-seeking prosecutor David Soares and the unofficial Albany County District Attorney Office PR agent qualifies as “investigative reporting.” Does this represent the current state of what is valued in investigative journalism? (”Investigative journalism still thriving in Albany,” April 2) Read more
