Ultraliberal New York mayor Bill de Blasio has been about as transparent as Barack Obama. Jonathan Lemire at AP reported “In nearly five months in office, de Blasio barred the media from 53 events and limited access to 30 more, an Associated Press analysis of de Blasio's schedule shows.” Why do liberals distrust a liberal media?
AP labeled the mayor “a populist Democrat who campaigned with promises of an open administration.” He claimed Tuesday he "believes deeply in transparency,” even as he’s barred the press from his meetings with luminaries like Al Sharpton, Israel’s minister of foreign affairs, NBA commissioner Adam Silver, and the Russian band Pussy Riot.
"Bill de Blasio is a charming and talented man, but the people he's meeting with are doing so because he's the mayor of New York City, not because he's a charming and talented man," AP executive editor Kathleen Carroll said in an interview. "We're not pushing this for our end. We're pushing for it because the press is a stand-in for the public."
It's more common that the press is a stand-in for the liberal fraction of the public, not all the people.
Lemire suggested that previous mayors were also stand-offish with the press, but New York magazine noted that during his first two months in office, de Blasio pooled print reporters at least seven times, "more than Mayor Michael Bloomberg did in his final three years combined, according to a review of both mayors' public schedules." AP now lists 30 press-pool events.
