Mayor Adams Defensive Over Being Grilled About His Attack on Lack of Racial Diversity in the Media
Edited by: TJVNews.com
Seems like New York City Mayor Eric Adams is rip roaring angry over the way that he has been treated by the New York City press corps.
According to a report in the New York Post, Mayor Adams became defensive on Wednesday when he was asked about his vitriolic criticism of the media on Tuesday.
During a press conference on summer youth employment opportunities on Tuesday, Adams lashed out at the media for their lack of racial diversity. The Post reported that he even threatened to stop fielding “off-topic” questions at his press conferences.
The mayor was roiled over the coverage he received on his failed bid to persuade state legislators to compromise on his anti-crime plan. He intimated that a largely white press corps did not give him fair coverage and that racism may have come into play.
During a question and answer session with reporters on the presentation of his budget proposals, the mayor was grilled by reporters about the complaints he had with the coverage given on his inability to convince leaders in Albany to make modifications to the bail reform laws, according to the Post report. This included his claim that: “My story is being interpreted by people that don’t look like me.”
In an exchange with a Post reporter, Adams claimed that he didn’t intend to paint the city press corps as racist, even though he’d made a point of noting a day earlier that it’s largely white, as was reported by the Post.
“I want you to go back and listen to what I said yesterday, and see if I use the term ‘racist’ at all,” he said when The Post asked him why he called out the press corps as “racist.”
“This is exactly what I’m talking about. When you hear something comes from my mouth, you use a predisposition of your life to interpret what I say,” Adams said cynically.
The Post reported that Adams “didn’t explain why he chose to play the race card over seemingly innocuous coverage of what was widely expected to be a doomed bid to sway Albany.”
The New York Post was the only major newspaper to give him an endorsement for mayor during the Democratic primary. Adams took the Post to task over its characterization of his diatribe against the media. He claimed that, “when I express something based on my observation, it’s called a rant.”
At the start of his press conference on Tuesday about summer employment efforts for the city’s youth, Adams expressed his anger about the many reports about his failed bid to win support from Albany, as was reported by the Post. He said that the reports were unfairly negative.
“If you want to acknowledge or not, I have been doing a darn good job and we just can’t live in this alternate reality,” he said at the press conference.
The Post reported that Adams suggested on multiple occasions that race played a factor in coverage of him. He queried: “How many blacks are on editorial boards? How many blacks determine how these stories are being written?”
He said that if coverage of him does not improve in terms of fairness, that he will stop fielding “off-topic” questions at his news conferences
On Wednesday, however, Adams claimed that his criticisms of media coverage were meant to help the press corps in terms of providing equitable coverage.
The Post reported that Adams said: “I am trying to help you. I want you to grow. I want you to be kinder, I want you to be emotionally intelligent, not to feel that everyone is trying to attack you.”
Adams also said that “there’s nothing personal I have against anyone,” according to the Post report.
“We are at a place that we have to ask ourselves: If everyone is not around the table, then are we really getting different views from everyone?” he said.
“That’s what this is about. And if I’m just a black mayor, that is just going to go through the motion and say, ‘Oh, you know what? I got elected,’ and not use this platform to go after the systemic inequities.”
The Post reported that Adams added: “I know what my African-American reporters are going through. I don’t see reporters with — that’s from the Sikh community. We have to diversify this. And it’s a painful conversation.”
