New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says it would be better if certain newsrooms didn’t exist.
This sort of anti-media rhetoric is a direct attack on a central pillar of our liberties, according to the standard line used by White House critics.
“If you could remove News Corp from the last 25 years of American history, we would be in an entirely different place,” de Blasio told the Guardian this week, referring to the company that owns Fox News, the New York Post, the Wall Street Journal, and dozens of other newspapers.
Former News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch is responsible for the election of President Trump, the New York City mayor alleged, adding that the Australian media mogul’s properties are responsible for so much of what’s currently wrong with the United States.
Without News Corp, the self-described social Democrat explained, “we would be a more unified country. We would not be suffering a lot of the negativity and divisiveness we’re going through right now. I can’t ignore that.”
De Blasio continued, claiming his media criticisms are totally different from Trump’s broad attacks on the news media.
“There is no comparison between a progressive critique of the media — and overwhelmingly corporate media, by the way — and a president who does not believe in free speech and is trying to undermine the norms of democracy,” the mayor said.
He added, “If you see a steady decline in democracy, we’re going to have to vividly defend a lot of media we don’t agree with. But I don’t want to give them a free pass on what they have done to all of us.” (Emphasis added.)
Wow. This is not normal. Let that sink in.
Mayor de Blasio’s attacks on the press are an attack on democracy. The mayor’s rhetoric is disgusting, dangerous, and must end. His demonization of the media is dangerous, and it merits a continued, vigorous response.
The spectacle of the most powerful mayor in the world attacking the press is not normal to a functioning democracy. It’s normal in a functioning authoritarian state.
The United Nations ought to issue a statement condemning the mayor’s remarks. Maybe some U.S. senator can introduce a resolution calling on de Blasio to “respect our free press rather than demean and diminish it.”
(Obviously, I’m parroting the reactions to Trump’s attacks on the media.)
More seriously, de Blasio’s charge that News Corp is primarily responsible for the rise of Trump is not even true. It was a team effort by national media, and MSNBC and CNN did a lot of the heavy lifting. (See: The months-long “Morning Joe” love-fest and the fact that CNN covered Trump more than any other 2016 candidate.)
Any minute now, members of the press will light up social media with vigorous and forceful denunciations of de Blasio’s anti-media rhetoric, provided, that is, they’re not too tired from screaming all weekend at a gift shop.
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Full disclosure: This author is a paid contributor with CNN/HLN.
