De Blasio Allows Security to Remove Reporter Hours After He Declared Love for Free Press
Hypocrite, thy name is Bill de Blasio.
On Sunday morning, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio declared his love for a free press and diverse views.
But I guess that only applies to President Donald Trump because hours after de Blasio’s declaration, he didn’t stop his security detail from removing a New York Post reporter for simply asking a question.
Early Sunday Morning
De Blasio appeared on CNN’s Reliable Sources on Sunday morning where he bashed Robert Murdoch and Fox News and blamed them for Trump’s presidency. I honestly don’t know where he was in 2016 because whenever Trump held a rally all three news networks streamed it.
But I digress.
De Blasio said he believes America would be “more unified” without these outlets, which led host Brian Stelter to compare it to Trump’s anti-media rhetoric. De Blasio responded:
De Blasio insisted his stance on Murdoch’s empire is different from Trump’s press attacks. The mayor said he is not anti-media and defends News Corp’s “right to exist.”
“I believe in a free, strong media with diverse views. I’ll defend it with all I’ve got,” de Blasio said. “But we have to be able to call out when a particular company has a corporate agenda, has a political agenda, and has very effectively changed the American discourse.”
Stelter asked de Blasio about calling The New York Post a “right-wing rag” and he wanted to know why the mayor feels it’s his “role to be calling out a newspaper” due to content he doesn’t like.
De Blasio replied: “Because I think it’s not happening enough. … It’s not happening the way I think it should.”
Because he totally knows best, right?
Thing is, de Blasio made these same remarks a week earlier in an interview with The Guardian and as Becket Adams at The Washington Examiner predicted, de Blasio got a free pass on these attacks.
Later on Sunday…
A few hours later, at the beginning of the Dominican Day Parade, a New York Post reporter asked for de Blasio’s reaction to a Post story about his administration meeting with lobbyists:
Just two hours later, after de Blasio cut a ribbon to kick off the parade and was posing for photos near West 37th Street and Sixth Avenue, the reporter asked him to comment on the Page One “CITY FOR SALE” story.
Instead of answering or even declining to answer the question, the mayor watched as two members of his NYPD security detail approached the reporter — who was wearing a police-issued press pass around his neck — with one grabbing his shoulder and leading him away from the mayor.
“Kevin, you have to leave. You can’t be here,” the plainclothes cop said.
Both bodyguards then escorted the reporter about a half-block away, where a member of the NYPD’s public information office, Officer Brian Magoolaghan, told him, “Come on, Kevin. No stunts today.”
Free press for thee, not for me.
Why is it okay for de Blasio to do this, but the media gets all riled up (as they should) when Trump does it? No politician is above the press.
I bet people will say it’s because Trump is president and therefore he must be held to higher standards. To me, all politicians are held to the same standards and that means they all respect the press.
It is not okay for de Blasio to bash the media just as it’s not okay for Trump to bash the media. I have regularly criticized Trump for his attacks on the media, but I doubt I’ll see those who joined my chorus say anything against de Blasio.
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Comments
De Blasio is just another leftist, fascist wanna be. NYC has become more and more burdened with regulations under his rule, and it is becoming crippling.
De Blasio only likes news from the Pravda networks. What a shock, huh?
And exactly how does the world expect a communist to act when faced with perceived adversity?
Stalin, Castro, Mao, Pol Pot all did the same thing when confronted with questions they didn’t like – except with their rejections they subtracted they added a bullet to the brain.
De Blasio has had a rocky relationship with the press unless they were sycophants. Of course De Blasio has a rocky relationship with many things, truth, integrity, competence as well as the media that isn’t supine.
Fortunately for him he seems to have the NYPD in line with the squelching of a free press.
“No stunts?” What stunts? Will the NYPD’s public information office explain how a reporter asking a question is a stunt?
Psycophants?
This just cries out for a Mel Brooks clip:
“They are my people. I am their sovereign. I love them. Pull!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk47saogI8o
It is perfectly ok for Trump, or any other American, to criticize the press. Further, a politician may refuse to answer questions, or have press members removed from the area.
And the press is free to tattle on them.
The voters of NYC are getting what they wanted, good and hard.
Why is it not OK for either of them to “bash the media”? What is so special about “the media” that makes them immune from the same criticism that you would accept without murmur if it were directed, e.g., at carpenters, or lawyers?
but the media gets all riled up (as they should) when Trump does it? No politician is above the press.
A ridiculous statement, and a thoroughly un-American sentiment.
No reporter is above the news, and they should be criticized—and unrelentingly—when they pretend that they are.
Lay off the fake news and the criticism will stop. D’uh.
But I don’t see anything in this story which implies that “Kevin” was flogging fake news. So trying to draw parallels between de Blasio and Trump is just squeezing apples and oranges into the same bag.
Seems clear De Blasio expects reporters to abide by some kind of event or venue appropriate decorum. How novel. Imagine showing respect for the right of people to eat in a restaurant in peace, shop, traverse the public right of way, retire to their own home in peace without disruptive hordes camped on their lawn, etc.
Back in the day DeBlasio/Wilhelm was a big fan of the Sandinistas. The Sandinistas have always been in favor of a free press,provided the free press supports the Sandinistas.
As I recall it, the Sandinistas closed La Prensa by not allowing it to buy ink.
Hypocrite, thy name is Warren Wilhelm, Jr.
Why do these leftists change their names?
To confuse folks as to who they are, and thus get votes they otherwise wouldn’t if people realized who they really are?
If you mean that in NYC an Italian name gets you more votes than a German one, then tell me, in what sense is he “really” more German than Italian? Even if he’d done it for this reason (which he didn’t), isn’t he merely letting people know the truth? He’s just as Italian as George Zimmerman is Peruvian, and if Zimmerman had, quite legitimately, changed his name in childhood to Jorge Mesa, none of us would ever have heard of him.
The people of NYC deserve de Blasio. They’re all dumber than a sack of hammers for electing him.