In the past month, the rumor mill among reporters has been rife with talk of how Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County Legislature's presiding officer and the Republican candidate for state comptroller, is going to be plastered in the media this fall.

Such "locker room" talk in certain quarters of the press is not uncommon, but the content of this talk has troubled us greatly, because we feel that is unfair and symptomatic of the poor state Long Island journalism is in at the moment.

Several weeks ago, a local weekly, not affiliated with the Anton Community Newspaper chain, published a rather limp article tearing into Mr. Blakeman on a number of counts, none of them, in our view, counts of substance.

Essentially, this newspaper characterized Mr. Blakeman as somewhat less than a genius, a tool of the Republican machine, and most troubling to us, as someone with ties to organized crime.

To what do they attribute this "scoop"? To the fact that 10 years ago his father-in-law, Michael Shevell, the CEO of New England Motor Freight, was named in a federal civil racketeering suit.

The RICO suit charged that Shevell "cultivated" an 11-year "corrupt relationship" with Tony Provenzano, president of Teamsters Local 560, and several of his associates.

While this "newspaper" does contain a quote from Shevell saying that the suit was "settled without any concession of wrong-doing," it points out that someone else named in the suit -- someone Bruce Blakeman probably wouldn't know if he fell over him -- was convicted of wrong-doing.

The article goes on to say that "There is no indication" that Blakeman was even involved with his father-in-law's company "at the time of the racketeering suit."

Well, then, we ask, why even bring it up?

Why? Because such statements in newsprint supposedly are compelling to a certain audience.

Now, tragically, we hear that reporters from other, more mainstream, and one would've thought, more responsible newspapers are planning to smear Bruce Blakeman with the same material.

We would rather that did not happen, but if it does -- and this being a political year it likely will-- why not tell us, as your readers, how RICO cases are put together.

Do they always contain a laundry list of defendants? Do the majority of those defendants get off? If so, why?

If an individual is named in a lawsuit of any kind, does connecting the names of relatives and relatives by marriage have any validity.

What made the article so obscene is that the reporter showed no tangible connection to Bruce Blakeman at all -- other than the fact that a newspaper chose to throw this material into an already unflattering article about the candidate.

Yes, the world of politics is rife with allegations, but if you are going to portray yourself as a responsible media organization, then you have to build a real case with real evidence, and show me some kind of outcome.

What is the newspaper in question trying to imply? Are they saying the presiding officer of the Nassau County Legislature has done something -- anything-- in his government career that benefited organized crime? If so, what was it?

All too often, these days, it seems that the media relies on making implications instead of reporting facts, and why? Because they don't have any facts and somehow have come to believe that you don't need to support an implication.

How can that be, we wonder to ourselves. Call it what you will, but to us, an "implication" is really nothing short of an "allegation," wafer-thin though it may be.

It seems to us that a responsible journalist wishing to do responsible reporting on a political race or governmental official should do one thing: look at the public record at hand, assess it, and tell the reader what you've found and how you've arrived at the conclusions you are promulgating.

If the record indicates that a public official is a lightweight or irresponsible or not fulfilling his or her public obligation, and those assertions can be backed up with documentations or verifiable facts, fine.

But to settle for less does both our profession and the public we endeavor to inform a gross injustice.

Daniel J. McCue