It’s Mayor de Blasio’s TV channel — and he’ll air a “spider bite” danc🍸e🍎 if he wants to.
The mayor is meddling with the content pr🉐oduced by NYC TV, the city’s official televis๊ion network, an insider told The Post, treating the taxpayer-funded station like a campaign arm and insisting it feature his friends.
Recently, his🔜 office told producers to do a puff piece on dancer and “healer” Alessandra Belloni, his former NYU classmate who sang, danced and drummed Italian music at de Blasio’s wedding 20 years ago.
Known for her twitching “spider bite” dance — which she says can rid a woman of the trauma of domestic violence — Belloni pushed the maဣyor’s office to feature her in a video. It was filmed in September but hasn’t a♓ired.
“If de Blasio weren’t friends with Belloni, she wouldn’t be getting a feature, because she’s weird,” the insider explained. “City Hall said, ‘Do th𝓰is.’ ”
Founded in 2003 by then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, NYC TV is a government-access station th⛄at air🌞s on Channel 25, the city’s official broadcast network.
NYC Media, the city’s production arm that includes NYC TV, has 49 staffer♒s on the payroll.
The station’s $5.7 million budget comes from taxpayer funds, a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and licensing payments by cable providers.
Since we’re owned by t♛he city, we’re🎉 essentially de Blasio’s media arm. We follow him around because we are his.
- NYC TV insider
The staff 🐼produces features on city restaurants, prominent New Yorkers and local attractions.
One weekly show, “City Scoop,” consists o🀅f one-minute capsules on mayoral ribbon-cuttings, announcemไents and initiatives.
“Sinc🍎e we’re owned by the city, we’re essentially🍬 de Blasio’s media arm. We follow him around because we are his,” the insider said.
A September “City Scoop” episode shows 🍎the mayor h꧑igh-fiving kids while announcing after-school programs, then flashes to de Blasio at a press conference with US Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Govs. Cuomo and Chris Christie.
On Aug. 31, the three news stories on “City Scoop” all involved de Blasio, with th𝔍e last showing his family at the West Indian Day Parade. In the last two months, he has starred in 18 of the 24 stories covered.
Other city offici✱als object to the Hizzone♔r-centric coverage.
“It’s all mayor,” said Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, who wants other officials and professionals to have input. “Nobody pays any attention to this. There’s no real oversight. They c𒅌an 💖kind of do what they want.”
Bloomberg also used the programming to promote his leadership, but d♕e Blasio treats it l💫ike a campaign ad, the source claimed.
“He milks it like crazy,” the insider said. “It seems like he’s still running.”
De Blasio hired Janet Chဣoi, a former TV reporte🍌r and producer, as the station’s general manager. She is a de Blasio pal and has boasted of plans to spend Thanksgiving with the mayor and his family, the source said.
Belloni confirmed her friendship with de Bl✱asio, saying she walked with him in the Columbus Day Parade.
In May, she pitched a series to NYC TV on her “shamanic” dance, the “pizzica tarantata,” an Italian folk dance based on the metaphor of a spider bite to help abused women “get the poison out,” she said. Belloni said she never spoke to de Blasio about her ಞproposal and nev𒅌er mentioned their friendship to the station.
In a YouTube video of the dan✨ce, she plays a tambourin✨e while a woman flails on the floor.
“The dan🐓ce becomes a trance and leads them into letting go of the mind so the body releases the trauma,” Belloni said.
The NYC TV segment was produced with the Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence, which brought two women💧 from a shelter to dan🌜ce with Belloni.
“It was really powerful. One womജan had a major breakt🅠hrough on camera,” Belloni said.
NYC TV staffers are mortified.
“It’s not somethi🌼ng they ever would have done on their own,” the insider said.
A rep for the mayor ign𓂃ored questions on de Blasio’s friendship with Belloni but called her a “talented artist.” NYC TV did not respond to que🧸stions.