New York Post columnist and "equal-opportunity prick" Fredric Dicker is riding his story about New York governor David Paterson trashing New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg hard on day two—despite the fact that neither pol took the bait. Bloomberg laughed it off and Paterson denied the reports. The Daily News got in on the act today as well: "an Albany someone began to whisper that the mayor was a mean, dishonest egomaniac. The place has no shame. The place is a cesspool." My word! Meanwhile, the NYDN's political blogger Liz Benjamin is keeping the story far away from her and giving it incredibly little play. In fact, while Dicker and other reporters complain that Paterson refused to address the story all day, Benjamin notes that Paterson was off getting emergency eye surgery and traveling to New York City for his son's middle-school graduation. So today Dicker gets all mob boss on the Governor.

He writes of Paterson's denial:

The Post's report was based on a source "with firsthand knowledge of Paterson's comments."

Let's see, how many people could that be?

Paterson himself? Perhaps Michelle Paterson, the governor's wife, or Charles O'Byrne, the governor's chief of staff? Another possibility is Communications Director Risa Heller. You get the point.

Experienced and tested journalists don't make up stories like this—they don't make up stories at all.

They're also prepared to reveal to their top editors who the source of a story is when their own, and their newspaper's, credibility is questioned.

Meow! This is basically one step short of extortion, which is totally cute.