News outlets ID'ed Giuliani ally as "former firefighter"; no mention of business partnership with Giuliani

In reports on the release of an online video critical of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's [R] 9-11 record, The New York Times, the Associated Press, and the New York Daily News reported former New York City firefighter Richard Sheirer's criticism of the video without noting that Sheirer is a senior vice president at Giuliani Partners LLC, a consulting firm established by Giuliani, who is still listed as the firm's chairman and chief executive officer.

The online video -- produced by the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) -- features criticism of Giuliani's handling of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks from former firefighters, as well as family members of firefighters who died that day. A July 12 Times article on the video reported that the Giuliani campaign "turn[ed] to two loyalists with long ties to the New York City Fire Department to rebut the accusations" -- Sheirer and retired firefighter Lee Ielpi. The Times identified Sheirer as "a former firefighter who was commissioner of the city's Office of Emergency Management on Sept. 11." The article did not report Sheirer's business partnership with Giuliani.

A July 12 Daily News article similarly reported: "Defending Giuliani at an afternoon news conference were former Office of Emergency Management Commissioner Richard Sheirer and Lee Ielpi, a former city firefighter whose son died on Sept. 11." The article did not note that Sheirer is a member of Giuliani Partners.

Additionally, a July 11 AP article cited "former Office of Emergency Management Commissioner Richard Sheirer" as having rebutted a claim made in the IAFF video. The article did not report Sheirer's business partnership with Giuliani.

As Media Matters for America has noted, in the book Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11 (HarperCollins, 2006), Village Voice senior editor Wayne Barrett and CBSNews.com senior producer Dan Collins described Sheirer as a "Giuliani loyalist who had spent most of his career as a fire alarm dispatcher and a leader of one of the few unions to endorse Giuliani's 1993 candidacy, the dispatchers' union" (Page 31).

—J.H.