Former Roosevelt Island officials used taxpayer money to fund an elaborate scheme to manipulate the press as they faced a backlash over lackluster service at the Roosevelt Island Tramway, according to an explosive state investigation.
Officials overseeing the Roosevelt Island tram — whose cable cars cross over the East River between Midtown Manhattan and Roosevelt Island at East 59th Street — paid $168,680 to PR firm Status Labs to orchestrate the yearlong campaign in late 2022, according to New York state’s Office of the Inspector General.
Officials at the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation aimed to deflect complaints over months of tram breakdowns, overcrowding, and inadequate accommodations for passengers with disabilities, according to the report released last week.
While the report found that some of the tram’s service problems could be blamed on a glut of tourists who use the tram to take in scenic views, it noted that residents and blogs also raised hackles over media coverage that solely blamed tourists and ignored signs of poor management.
Months later, according to the report, state officials found that the “tourist trap” blame game was part of a carefully calculated misinformation campaign that was paid for by the tram’s executive board.
Between October 2022 and October 2023, the PR team produced 17 positive articles about the RIOC executives and planted them on various blogs. According to the report, ROIC officials edited and reviewed articles Status Labs had written about them, and even organized headshots for the puff pieces — all during RIOC work hours.
Status Labs — whose mission is “to help our clients take and maintain control of their digital identity and look their best online,” according to its website — didn’t respond to noti.group’s request for comment.
Status Labs also helped RIOC executives manipulate Google’s search engine optimization (SEO) algorithm and move legitimate negative articles from local blogs lower down on search pages, according to the report.
“If a user’s content does not appear ‘on the first few pages of results,’ that content ‘may as well not exist,’ the report says, quoting Google’s SEO starter guide.
The Roosevelt Island Daily News closely reported on the tram issues and management aside from tourist crowding, tagging 419 articles on its website under “RIOC negligence.” The Roosevelt Islander, another local newspaper that has covered the ROIC, was also mentioned in the report as a target of the SEO campaign.
“This wasn’t hard to spot. SEO manipulation has fingerprints. We follow all public meetings, and it didn’t take much to connect the dots. It’s good to now have confirmation and added detail, but it’s not surprising,” siad Theo Gobblevelt, Editor at the Roosevelt Island Lighthouse.
Rick O’Conor, publisher at the Roosevelt Islander, called the report’s findings “extremely troubling,” but added, “In my opinion, the current RIOC administration has greatly improved communications with the local media and public. It’s like night and day.”
Bryant Daniels, RIOC’s Director of Communications and Community Affairs, declined to comment about the report, citing pending litigation.
The next RIOC meeting, scheduled for April 10 at 5:30 p.m. was cancelled, according to the firm’s website.
An explanation for the cancellation was not included in the notice.
Four RIOC executives were named and accused of using public funds to protect their reputations.
One executive received a monthly progress report from Status Labs as the contract manager, the report reveals. One such report detailed how the executive board suppressed negative content from Google pages that specifically contained executive board members’ first and last names.
Since the four RIOC executives named in the report are no longer employed and considering that Status Lab’s contract was not renewed, there is no “immediate danger of continued misuse of state resources,” the report found.
Executive staff may have violated New York State’s Public Officers Law Code of Ethics, according to the report. A state ethics commission is currently reviewing the inspector general’s report for further action.
Watchdog and state Inspector General Lucy Lang, who leads New York State in their mission to investigate “allegations of corruption, fraud, criminal activity, conflicts of interest,” led the report. She called these actions “improper, self-serving” and “contrary to public policy.”
Local newspapers and residents have long held some criticism of the RIOC. In March 2022, an anonymous letter from RIOC employees claimed their executives have “a long history of corruption, ethics scandals and a culture of harassment, bullying, and favoritism due to pandering.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
