You probably accumulate a lot of enemies after holding a public office for a few years, but de Blasio’s petty shut out of New York Post reporter Yoav Gonen at a press conference on Thursday feels more like a fight in a high school cafeteria.
Gonen attempts several times to get the mayor’s attention, but de Blasio says, “You can keep calling if you want,” then picks another reporter’s question. Things get increasingly awkward, until Gonen insists, “I’m credentialed just like the other media,” to which de Blasio responds, “That’s nice, I appreciate solidarity.” Me-ow!
The New York Post has been nightmarish in the mayor’s opinion for some time now, but this shut out was inspired by an article the Post ran on Monday about the special assistants hired by de Blasio’s administration, including Victor Calise, the commissioner of the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, de Blasio told the New York Times. Pointing at Calise, de Blasio says, “I’ve got no use for a right-wing rag that attacks people who are good public servants and tries to undermine their reputation.”
TheTimesspoke with the mayor on the phone, and he complained about the paper the same way you’d complain about your office enemy:
Mr. de Blasio said it was time to “have this conversation” about The Post, which he described as “a very negative presence in our city” and an “ideological apparatus” with little resemblance to a truth-seeking news operation.
“I think it’s important, as the leader of this city, to say out loud what so many people already know,” he said. “The Post’s approach has gotten worse and worse.”
The Post has responded in its own special way:
The mayor told the Times that he would speak with reporters from the Post in future, provided they’re not “in the middle of playing out one of their propaganda strategies.”
