Maybe he should just quit being mayor and open a newspaper.
Sounding more like President Trump than the progressive he claims to be, Mayor Bill de Blasio railed against city newspapers for truth-telling coverage, prayed for the “demise” of the New York Post and even mused about producing his own “click-bait” articles, according to secretive emails the administration was forced to hand over to The Post following a lawsuit.
When former Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman was considering selling the failing tab in 2015, de Blasio didn’t lament the paper’s anemic state — he tried to calculate how the sale could aid or hinder his rage against hard-edged coverage in the New York Post.
“And that would be good for us, right?” de Blasio asked in a May 23, 2015, email about the potential sale. “Or would that make the Post more dominant? Or, conversely, would it hasten the demise of the Post — prob just wishful thinking.”
It’s no secret the mayor gets hostile with the press when he’s not happy about how they cover him, but newly released emails show that behind the scenes, the thin-skinned mayor raged at even middle-of-the-road coverage.
After an August 2015 New York Times article gave Hizzoner props for keeping a cool head during a press conference amid a string of testy public appearances, a cranky de Blasio refused to take the feedback and called the article “idiotic.”
His then-press secretary Karen Hinton called the article “subjective reflection” but “a way to move forward.”
Hinton suggested her team “play good cop/bad cop with room 9 [where City Hall reporters work].” Taken to its logical conclusion, journalists would be suspected criminals in that metaphor.
“I agree with you on strategy,” de Blasio replied. “I disagree with you on this article, which I think is idiotic.”
A few weeks later in August, media critic de Blasio and wife Chirlane McCray were musing about publishing their own articles — in the form of “click-bait.”
“New idea from Chirlane: create our own click-bait. Our own topical, lively, unconventional, sometimes fun, sometimes controversial content. Pls discuss at mtg tonite,” he wrote on Aug. 19, 2015.
The emails came as part of a long-fought freedom-of-information request battle by The Post and NY 1. The administration claimed the emails, which were sent among staffers and outside political consultants, were privileged.