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De Blasio: I'm No Trump When it Comes to the Media

By Jeff Mays | January 18, 2017 8:19am
 Mayor Bill de Blasio said his refusal to answer questions from certain news outlets can't be compared to President-elect Donald Trump's decision last week to not take questions from two organizations, one of which he called a
Mayor Bill de Blasio said his refusal to answer questions from certain news outlets can't be compared to President-elect Donald Trump's decision last week to not take questions from two organizations, one of which he called a "failing pile of garbage."
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DNAinfo/Jeff Mays

NEW YORK CITY — Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday his refusal to answer questions from certain news outlets can't be compared to President-elect Donald Trump's decision last week to not take questions from two organizations, one of which he called a "failing pile of garbage."

De Blasio, who has criticized numerous Trump policies and vowed to fight against them, said his decision to sometimes not take questions from the New York Post is not the same as Trump's refusal last week to not take questions from BuzzFeed and CNN.

Both outlets wrote stories about allegations that the Russian government has gathered compromising information on the president-elect and that his staff had been in contact with the Russian government. CNN wrote about the documents complied by a former British spy generally, while BuzzFeed published them.

"I think it's apples and oranges. I was very explicit that when I thought a particular outlet was running a particular strategic play that I was going to call it out, that being your outlet," de Blasio told a reporter from the Post on Tuesday during an unrelated press conference in Queens.

"Your outlet is no stranger to such propagandistic efforts and when you're in the middle of doing something like that I'm going to say it out loud. But as you know, there are plenty of times I call on you and other reporters from the Post and take the questions," the mayor added.

In October, de Blasio refused to take a question from the Post's City hall bureau chief about an increase in the number of special assistants that his office had hired. Earlier in the month he refused to answer a Post question about whether a contractor hired to train correction officers had the proper experience to do so.

De Blasio called the Post a "right-wing rag" in October and ignored a plea from the paper's reporter to answer his question.

The mayor has had a somewhat difficult relationship with the press. He has been criticized for holding only one press availability per week where the media can ask questions on any topic and for using city-produced videos that some have compared to campaign advertisements.

►READ MORE: De Blasio Insists Taxpayer-Funded Videos Are Not Campaign Ads

The mayor's former press secretary Karen Hinton said he needed to develop a thicker skin when it came to dealing with the media.

"Most New York City mayors have a love/hate relationship with news media, de Blasio is no different," Hinton said in June "As I was leaving City Hall I told him, I said: 'You need to have a little bit of a tougher skin and you need to develop better relationships with the news media and I think he understands that and he wants to do that."

Trump held his first press conference in six months last week. It was a combative affair where he refused to call on a reporter from CNN and accused the network of writing "fake news."

Trump has also not followed traditional protocols on traveling with the media and access. He is also considering moving the White House press team out of the White House, although they say its to find a larger space.

De Blasio said his very specific issues with the Post don't compare. He said he only refuses to take questions from the outlet when they have a specific agenda.

"There were a handful of times when I said there was a specific thing being done that I thought was a strategic act by a paper, with all due respect to you personally ... and a corporation that everyone in the world knows has a vast ideological agenda that it pursues worldwide. This is not a news flash what News Corp is up to," de Blasio said of the Rupert Murdoch-owned parent company of the New York Post.

"What Trump has talked about is a very different reality of potentially banning outlets altogether or never taking their questions. That's unprecedented and from my point of view, unacceptable," the mayor added.

De Blasio said he has always answers "perfectly straight up news questions" from the Post. When a New York Times reporter tried to interrupt the Post reporter Tuesday, de Blasio interjected with mock outrage.

"Can you not interrupt the New York Post, please," the mayor said. "I know the Times thinks it's important, but I find that disrespectful."