This morning, Gov. Paterson again attempted to get beyond his controversial remarks on race, admitting he "overreacted" and "shouldn't have said it - straight out" during a second appearance on the same radio talk show where he started the furor last week. "I was wrong to get into an assessment of how the media views me," Paterson said in interview on WWRL 1600AM. "I do not think that race has anything to do with my poll numbers, has anything to do with my political issues in this day and shouldn't have said it - straight out."Despite the acknowledgment, Paterson went on to again complain about coverage of a night club party he attended last month with his 21-year-old daughter.
"To me, it leads to the notion of a stereotype of African Americanism: 'They're hanging out, they're in the club, they're drinking and they have no regard for their children,'" Paterson said. "That's the negative stereotype that I thought was being placed because there was no fact that any of these things had ever happened."
Paterson passed up the opportunity to make amends with NY1 political anchor Dominic Carter, who has demanded and apology for the governor's attack on him last week. The governor made no mention of the journalist during today's interview.
Yesterday, Paterson repeatedly denied making controversial comments that he was the victim of a racially biased media.
Paterson, whose remarks Friday were privately described by aides as politically "disastrous," insisted at a Long Island press conference that he never suggested his poor standing with the public could be traced to biased coverage by the press.
"I didn't make any references to my political problems being related to being treated differently because of race," Paterson said.
"My remarks never say that there is a race element at all. What I did talk about was some negative racial stereotyping which I think has gone on from time to time.
"But I didn't blame my problems on that, I'm not changing the remarks that I made. I'm just correcting the interpretations of my remarks," he continued.
Paterson claimed during a Friday radio interview that the allegedly unfair press treatment he had received proved "that we're not in the post-racial period."