Warning: watch out for moving cameras

I actually had some empathy for the members of Gov. Paterson's cabinet who emerged from a meeting with him this afternoon.

Exiting the door from the corridor towards the staircase on the second floor of the Capitol, they were confronted by at least a dozen TV camera operators, most of whom turned on their bright lights, and maybe 20 or so reporters, many of whom were shouting questions that the officials as they tried to make their way through the crowd. And of course the questioners weren't interested in their expertise, like the state economy or consumer rights.

"Is he resigning? What did he say?'' some of them yelled at the officials, most of whom just kept their heads down and plowed through the assemblage.

Welcome to a full-throated, blood-in-the-water media frenzy.

Basically, the difference between a big story in Albany and a frenzy is the presence of New York City TV stations, whose representatives tend to bring their own brand of aggressiveness and assertiveness that comes both with their occupations and their places of work. What brought them here today, of course, was the possibility of the imminent resignation of Paterson.

Things can get hairy when the cameras have to move, for they are usually carried on shoulders and the back of them can whack the unwary in the head as the operators pivot. The people holding the cameras also often have to retreat while they're trying to get their shot, which of course means they can't see where they're going, and they have to depend on their on-camera cohorts to help guide them. It's best to stay out of their way. In this case, the camera is mightier than the pen.

At a little past mid-day, the pack was getting restless, since yet another shoe had dropped on Paterson (a new report claiming he took illegal gifts and might have lied under oath) and he had yet to respond.

It seemed possible that the only footage they would get would be state officials coming out of the meeting with Paterson, and thus the unusual insistence that the commissioners say something, almost anything.

But it was not to be. After a half-dozen or so commissioners came out, there was a half-hour lull or so, until one reporter found out that the meeting room was empty. Other participants had apparently slipped out through other entrances.

But soon we learned that Paterson was going to have a meeting with legislative leaders in a couple of hours, and that he would take questions.

That's how things unfolded, although there was palpable disappointment that Paterson showed no inclination of voluntarily leaving office, and in fact vowed to keep working on a new state budget.

Not many notes were scribbled when he was citing numbers about the state's fiscal predicament. But the media horde will continue to be around probably for a while as long as there's a chance the next shoe to drop will knock the governor out of office.