Presidential heights

So fun! The Washington Post's White House reporter, Peter Baker, mentioned one of my old Newsday stories in his campaign blog today. (Okay, so it's near the end, whatever.)

It's a piece I wrote in 2001 about how Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani fudge their height on their drivers' licenses. (My former editor, Les Payne also based a recent Newsday column on the same article.)

Giuliani claims to be 6'0" but is probably 5'9"-ish, and Bloomberg claims he's 5'10" but is more like 5'7". I covered the 2001 NYC mayoral campaign for Newsday and spent months watching and listening to these men - and I could tell something wasn't right because I'm 6'1".

I've gotten more mileage from the height story than from hundreds of others I've written, which shows how crucial it is for newspapers, especially, to factcheck what public offficials say about themselves - even if it's a matter of a few inches.