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Pro-Sheldon Silver Female Commenter Is Actually His Male Staffer
By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 24, 2012
Modified Sep 24, 2012
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By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 24, 2012
Modified Sep 24, 2012
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With the controversy over the State Assembly's secret payout to hush-up accusations that powerful Brooklyn Assemblyman Vito Lopez sexually harassed his female staffers, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has been under fire for mishandling the situation and essentially enabling an environment hostile to women. Earlier this month, a commenter named "Sophia Walker" rushed to Silver's defense on the Times Union's political blog—but now it turns out that Sophia Walker is actually one of Silver's legislative writers, 48-year-old man named Bill Eggler.
According to the Post, "A friend of Eggler’s innocently let the cat out of the bag by publicly identifying him as blogger Sophia Walker in a recent posting.... In wishing Eggler a happy birthday, Charles Apple of the American Copy Editors Society recently posted a note saying, 'Bill Eggler is a writer of legislation, speech and whatnot for the speaker of the New York state Assembly in Albany ... In addition, Bill writes a deliciously snarky, naughty and somewhat R-rated science fiction-heavy blog. Find that blog here and his Facebook page here.'" Sophia had written:
Two very telling quotes about the faux Lopez/Silver "scandal," one from Bill O’Reilly, himself a serial sexual harasser, and one from the New York Post, apologizing for the GOP’s rampant, institutionalized misogyny.
Priceless.
This entire affair is nothing more than election year scandal-mongering, all of which will fade away after the taxpayers foot the bill for a costly, perfunctory and pointless investigation that will find no significant wrongdoing on Silver’s part. And of course after the voters of his district duly elect Vito Lopez to another term in the Assembly, as is their right as Americans.
When the Post headed to Eggler's home in Albany, reporters noted "his mailbox reads both 'W. Eggler' and 'S. Walker'" while "the bathrobe-clad Eggler basically confirmed some involvement in the Sophia Walker and Last Goddess social-media Web sites. But the Silver staffer, who has worked out of Albany since 1997 and earns $42,822 a year, declined to comment on whether he wrote the online posts." Eggler refused to say anything definitive, though, "I don’t think it’s a good idea. The blog has a number of people who work on it. This is not something best left to me," and described "Sophia" as "a woman who lives in London. She’s a strange and reclusive character. It’s really her idea. She’s the one who started it and brought people in."
Silver's spokesman said, "We think it’s inappropriate, and we’ll look into it."
Tagged
bill eggler
sheldon silver
sock puppet
sophia walker
the last goddess
vito gropez
vito lopez
william eggler
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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